The eyrie of this species is large and shallow, built of green fir or pine branches, which are added to or renewed from time to time; the bed for the young is lined with down stripped from the parent birds. Old and high trees are usually preferred for building purposes, the nest being placed on a large branch near the main stem; year after year a pair of Hawks will return to the same spot, at each visit making such repairs as the eyrie requires, and renewing the green branches. The eggs, two to four in number, are large, long, and very wide towards the middle; the shell is thick, rough, of a greenish-white colour, and either entirely unmarked, or spotted with yellow; the female alone sits, but both parents guard the nest with jealous care, often attacking men, or even horses should they approach too near. The young grow very quickly, and are so voracious that the eyrie often looks like a slaughter-house, the parents having as much to do as they can manage in catering for their clamorous family, whose greed is so excessive that they will often fall upon and destroy each other when too impatient to await a fresh supply of food. Many and various are the means employed to clear the country of these destructive birds, but all attempts prove inadequate to cope with the extreme cunning and sagacity which they display on the approach of danger. In some parts of Asia their worst qualities are the points on which the favour of the native falconers is grounded, and by them these birds are prized as unrivalled for the purposes of the chase; they even employ them in the pursuit of such large game as hares. When about to hunt large animals, the legs of the Hawk are carefully covered with a kind of leather gaiters, to defend them when dragged through bushes and brambles, as their intended victim endeavours to escape from its clutch; seldom, however, does it succeed, for the bird holds firmly on with one foot, keeping the other raised to clear aside the branches, or get a firm grasp upon a bush, and thus arrest the progress of its quarry when the proper moment arrives. * * * * * The SINGING HAWKS (_Melierax_) are an African group, differing somewhat in shape from their European relatives. Their body is more slender, the beak less powerful, and the wings longer than in the races hitherto described; the tail is rounded at its extremity; the tarsi are strong and high, and the feet provided with comparatively short claws. THE TRUE SINGING HAWK.