fully 8000 feet.

[Footnote A: See 'Stray Feathers,' vol. ii. 1874, p. 243, and 'Lahore
to Yarkand,' p. 85.]

March to May is, I consider, the normal breeding-season; in the plains
the majority lay in April, rarely later, and in the hills in May; but
in the plains a few birds lay also in February.

The nest is placed as a rule on good-sized trees and pretty near their
summits. In the plains mangos and tamarinds seem to be preferred, but
I have found the nests on many different kinds of trees. The nest is
large, circular, and composed of moderate-sized twigs; sometimes it is
thick, massive, and compact; sometimes loose and straggling; always
with a considerable depression in the centre, which is smoothly lined
with large quantities of horsehair, or other stiff hair, grass,
grass-roots, cocoanut-fibre, &c. In the hills they use _any_ animal's
hair or fur, if the latter is pretty stiff. They do not, according to
my experience, affect luxuries in the way of soft down; it is always
something moderately stiff, of the coir or horsehair type; nothing
soft and fluffy. Coarse human hair, such as some of our native
fellow-subjects can boast of, is often taken, when it can be got, in
lieu of horsehair.

They lay four or five eggs. I have quite as often found the latter as
the former number. I have never myself seen six eggs in one nest, but
I have heard, on good authority, of six eggs being found.

Captain Unwin writes: "I found a nest of the Bow-billed Corby in the
Agrore Valley, containing four eggs, on the 30th April. It was placed
in a Cheer tree about 40 feet from the ground, and was made of sticks
and lined with dry grass and hair."

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the breeding of this
bird in the Valley of Cashmere:--

"Lays in the third week of April. Eggs four in number, ovato-pyriform,
measuring from 1.6 to 1.7 in length and from 1.2 to 1.25 in breadth.
Colour green spotted with brown; valley generally. Nest placed in
Chinar and difficult trees."

Captain Hutton tells us that the Corby "occurs at Mussoorie throughout
the year, and is very destructive to young fowls and pigeons; it
breeds in May and June, and selects a tall tree, near a house or
village, on which to build its nest, which is composed externally of
dried sticks and twigs, and lined with grass and hair, which latter
material it will pick from the backs of horses and cows, or from
skins of animals laid out to dry. I have had skins of