stion had already reared one brood that year, and that
the birds in question had nested in his verandah for some years. There
is no doubt that some wire-tailed swallows bring up two broods. Such
would seem to breed, as Hume says, in February and March and again in
July and August. But, as many nests containing eggs are found in May,
some individuals appear to have one brood only, which hatches out in
May or June.

Those useful but ugly fowls, the white scavenger vultures (_Neophron
ginginianus_), depart from the ways of their brethren in that they
nidificate in March and April instead of in January and February. The
nest is an evil-smelling pile of sticks, rags and rubbish. It is
placed on some building or in a tree.

The handsome brahminy kites (_Haliastur indicus_), attired in chestnut
and white, are now busily occupied, either in seeking for sites or in
actually building their nests, which resemble those of the common
kite.

In the open plains the pipits (_Anthus rufulus_) and the crested larks
(_Galerita cristata_) are keeping the nesting finch-larks company.

All three species build the same kind of nest--a cup of grass or
fibres (often a deep cup in the case of the crested lark) placed on
the ground in a hole or a depression, or protected by a tussock of
grass or a small bush.

On the churs and sand islets in the large Indian rivers the terns are
busy with their eggs, which are deposited on the bare sand. They breed
in colonies. On the same islet are to be seen the eggs of the Indian
river tern, the black-bellied tern, the swallow-plover, the
spur-winged plover and the Indian skimmer.

The eggs of all the above species are of similar appearance, the
ground colour being greenish, or buff, or the hue of stone or cream,
with reddish or brownish blotches. Three is the full complement of
eggs. The bare white glittering sands on which these eggs are
deposited are often at noon so hot as to be painful to touch;
accordingly during the daytime there is no need for the birds to sit
on the eggs in order to keep them warm. Indeed, it has always been a
mystery to the writer why terns' eggs laid in March in northern India
do not get cooked. Mr. A. J. Currie recently came across some eggs of
the black-bellied tern that had had water sprinkled over them. He is
of opinion that the incubating birds treat the eggs thus in order to
prevent their getting sun-baked. This theory should be borne in mind
by those who visit sandban