310 THE BIRDS OF GILGIT. 



24 — Syrnium- — ?* (66). 



Since I left Gilgit Dr. Scully writes that he has secured 

 a Syrnium which he believes to be new. As soon as he is 

 able to describe it he will do so. 



25.— Asio otus, Lin. (67). 



A summer visitor. Appears a little after the middle of 

 March, and is tolerably common. 



Dimensions of a Female. — Length, 14*5 inches ; wing, 12 i tail, 

 63 ; tarsus, 1'8. Irides, orange. Weight, 875 oz. 



26.— Asio accipitrinus, Pall. (68). 



A summer visitor ; appears in the middle of April. These 

 have more and purer white on the outer margins of the wing- 

 coverts, and the general tone of the plumage is paler than is 

 usual in specimens obtained further to the east. A male shot 

 on the 5th May had the testes slightly developed. Length-, 

 14*5 inches ; expanse, 41 ; -wing, 125 ; tail, £; tarsus, 1*7. 

 Weight, 5-25 oz. 



27.— Bubo turcomanus, Eversm. (68 quat.). 



The only specimen observed, a fine female, was brought in 

 on the 4th January by a native, who had knocked it over with 

 a pellet-bow. 



It corresponds exactly with the original description, except 

 in two points : there is no trace of white in the centre of the 

 feathers of the back ; and the primaries, instead of having the 

 yellow interspaces marked with nothing more than a few 

 minute dots of brown, have dense mottlings on the outer web, 

 which are almost entirely wanting on the inner. The dis- 

 tinctive points separating this species from B. ignavus given 

 by Sharpe in his Catalogue hold good, and are well exhibited 

 in this specimen. 



been the medium-sized bird. Against this it is contended that one of Sykes' two types J iy f** 



is the large Kite, and one the medium-sized one. Some of Sykes' birds were, it is known, J '£. rf£A*j\ 



collected about Bombay, where the large Kite does occur, and that is doubtless where c 



the one so-called type was procured ; but this does not alter the fact that Sykes '(, 



explicitly states that his name govinda was applied to the common Kite of the 



Deccan, and that the medium-sized Kite is the only Kite at all common there. 



See also note, pp. 229, 230, S.F., Vol. HI. Sykes never set forth any of his speci- 

 mens as types. It is only by constructive evidence that the specimens presented by 

 him to the H. E. I. C.'s Museum can be taken as types, and certainly no evidence 

 ■drawn from these can overthrow clear and explicit declarations of his accom- 

 panying his original description. It may be contended that the three races so run into 

 one another that they are not specifically separable. This is a perfectly tenable 

 view, though one from which I personally dissent. But if the three species be 

 accepted, then the name govinda must be applied to the medium-sized Kite, the com- 

 mon Kite of the Deccan. — A. O. H.J 



* Allied to S. aluco, and quite distinct from S. nivicolum, HodgB, I 

 hope to finish some notes about this interesting Owl shortly, — J. S. 



T i*^r 



