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Show 1868.] MR. R. C. BEAVAN ON INDIAN RAPTORES. 391 the ground, and not easy to approach within shot of any weapon except a rifle. Col. Tytler, however, was lucky enough to secure a pair of this fine bird at Umballah, in the cold weather of 1865-66, and he sent au account of it to the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' which was published in March 1866, p. 74. His dimensions are worth recording, as they differ slightly from those noted by Jerdon, and were taken from a freshly killed specimen, to m y certain knowledge. Length 43 in., wing 33, head and bill 6f, tarsus 5^, mid toe and claw 6, extent 8 ft. 2 in. ; -weight 17 lbs. Blyth, in ' Ibis,' 1863, p. 24, gives its habitat as " the mountainous parts of Europe and Asia, but rare in the plains of India." As far as m y personal experience goes, I have never once noticed it either at Simla or Darjeeling, the only two hill-stations with which I am at present acquainted. 2. OTOGYPS CALVUS, Scop. Black Vulture. Vulgo " King of the Vultures" of European residents in India. O n the 15th March, 1865, I found a nest of this species at Ram-nuggur, a small village in the Maunbhoom district of Chota Nagpore. This village, which consists of only a few huts, is situated at the foot of a peculiar-looking and steep hill, called Parasa; and the top of this hill being a station of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, it will probably be found marked in a fair-sized map. Halfway up the hill I came across a curious-looking low tree with a thick spreading top, in the middle of which latter, carefully concealed among the vegetation, was a large nest of sticks loosely put together; in it I found a single egg. The old bird flew off the nest as I approached, and to m y surprise I recognized it as the female of this species. There was but this single egg, which I was only just in time to secure, for the young bird had already begun to chip his way out. I got him out, however, after some difficulty, aud found the dimensions of the egg to be in length 3 | in., breadth 2|; in colour it was dirty white. The bird is tolerably common in Maunbhoom, and a carcass generally attracts two or three amongst hundreds of Gyps bengalensis. 3. GYPS FULVUS, Gmel. Large Tawny Vulture. This bird is abundant up country, about the stations of the Northwest Provinces of India, and in the hot weather apparently visits the hills ; for I saw a very fine one seated on the top of a high pine tree at Mahasoo, beyond Simla, on 29th September, 1866, in front of the dak bungalow.* At it I fired with a ball, but without the slightest effect. In the plain-country about Umballah it is peculiarly abundant at certain seasons. One I shot in the cold weather of 1865-66 at Sirhind measured in the flesh as follows:- Expanse from wing to wing 8 ft. 2 in. ; length 3 ft. 7 in.; wing 2 ft. 2 in.; tail 1 ft. 2 in. ; tarsus 4 in. ; bill at front nearly 3 in., its height If ; mid toe and claw 5|: weight 14f lb*. N o feathered tarsus. Scuta on all the toes. |