Notes. 315 



while on the other hand, it does not seem to me to have any 

 relations with the Cuczdida, nnder which Mr. Gray places it. 

 Of any of the scansors, it is nearest perhaps to the Capitonidee^ 

 but it seems to me a very aberrant form^ and it is to be hoped 

 that some ol" our numerous Himalayan ornithologists will 

 succeed in ascertaining- something of the habits of this species, 

 and, if they get a specimen in the flesh, send me the tongue 

 and body in sjnrits. 



I PROCURED, this last summer in Kooloo, a magnificent 

 eagle owl. It was shot at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet, 

 eating a snow partridge on the ground. Unfortunately the sex 

 was not ascertained, and my museum only contains a single 

 specimen of B. mamnms of Europe. Compared with that, it 

 appears somewhat larger, and very much paler, though of 

 precisely the same type of coloration. 



If considered distinct, it may stand as B. Hemachalana, 

 nobis. 



Another rare bird that I received from Kooloo, wag 

 Archibuteo hemiptilopus, B1., and as my bird is in a very 

 different stage of plumage to that described by Blyth and 

 Hodgson, it may be well to subjoin a description of it. 



This species closely resembles B. ferox ; and when I first 

 glanced at the specimen (which from its size as compared with 

 the dimensions given by Jerdon, may possibly, though I doubt 

 it, be a male) I passed it over as a large female of that species. 



On a second look, I thought it was a remarkably fine bird, and 

 then taking it up to examine, I came across the tarsi closely 

 feathered, in front and at the sides, down to the feet, and knew 

 at once what it was. 



Now we know how varied are the stages of plumage through 

 which B, ferox passes, and taking Blyth's (?) description quoted 

 by Jerdon, Mr. Hodgson's drawing of the type and my present 

 fcpecimen, it would seem that this species too passes through 

 very similar stages. 



Mr. Hodgson's drawing now before me, a very beautiful and 

 careful one, represents the lores and forehead as whitish, the former 

 densely clad with curved bristle-like feathers, dark shafted at the 

 tips. The whole of the rest of the head, chin, throat, and 

 neck all round and upper breast, a rich rufous, somewhat paler 

 and more huffy on the crown, each feather centred with dark 

 brown, narrowly so on the crown, more broadly so elsewhere. 

 The whole of the rest of the bird, a rich umber brown oy 



cl 



