A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 231 



bill from gape, 1*55 ; bill at front, 1*53 ; from anterior margin 

 of cere to point of bill, 0-95 ; width at gape, 1-32; depth of 

 closed bill at cere, 0-75 ; length of cere, 0'85 ; closed wings short 

 of tail, I'O; weight, lib 10'5ozs. 



Bill bluish grey horny, paler at tip ; cere leaden blue ; lower 

 eyelid lavenderi; irides rather deep golden yellow ; extremities 

 of toes bluish grey ; claws brownish black, grey horny at 

 their bases. 



An adult bird rather dai-k and richly coloured, but not to be 

 separated from S. newarense as far as plumage goes. It is, 

 however, conspicuously smaller than that species, the bill espe- 

 cially being much smaller — far less powerful than even in the 

 nestling of newarense — and the irides golden yellow instead 

 of deep brown. 



This Owl was shot in the Residency Garden, where it was 

 flying about at ten o'clock in the moniiug pursued by a crowd 

 of crows. Its stomach contained the feathers, bill, and some 

 bones of a Maina {Acridotheres fuscus) rolled up into a ball. 



This bird, I think, must be separated from S. newarense^ but 

 it is not clear what name it should bear. Under the head of 

 S. indranee, Mr. Sharpe (Cat. II., p. 282) gives the dimensions 

 of five Napalese birds, of which four have the wing from 14'2 

 to 14-9, and says : " Apparently, therefore, the last four of 

 these birds ought to be called S. indraneey But there seems 

 to be no doubt now (cf. S. ¥., VI., p. 27) that true indranee is 

 the bird described from Ceylon by Mr. Hume under the name 

 of ochrogenys ; and this is a species totally distinct alike from 

 newarense and the small form I have obtained. The four 

 birds mentioned by Mr. Sharpe and my specimen would seem 

 to deserve being separated as a sub-species of newarense on the 

 ground of their small size alone — my bird was little more 

 than one-half the weight of an adult newarense ;* and if the 

 colour of the irides in the small form is always golden yellow, 

 it would be entitled to full specific rank. I would propose the 

 name of Syrnium hodgsoni for this Owl. 



71.— Bubo nipalensis, Hodgs. 



This species was only met with on one occasion in the valley. 

 I was walking through thick tree forest on the top of Mount 

 Sheopuri at an elevation of over 7,000 feet, when a pair of 



* I hardly follow this. Dr. Scully gives the weight of an slAvH female &s 34'5 ozs. Of 

 this specimen a, male, he gives the weight at 26-5 ozs. Considering that the females 

 very generally run larger than the males, this difference is not so astounding. A fine 

 and very old male I shot at Simla had the wing 155, and weighed 33ozs. as against 

 14'4i and 26-o ozs. in this supposed sub-species. I cannot recommend this differentia- 

 tion until some more tangible distinction can be made out, — Ed., S. F. 



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