MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 517 



they associate in packs, sometimes of large numbers. " The young are born 

 in spring or early summer. 



E. Comber, 

 Honorary Secretary, 

 Mammal Department, Bo. Nat. Hist. Soc.] 



No. III.— URIAL IN PERSIA. 



While in the Kara Dagh and Hazar-Masjid hills on the Russian Frontier, 

 I saw the heads of several wild sheep, which seem to differ from Urial, as they 

 had an extra curl on them, i.e., they curved round and then outwards again. 

 I regret that I had no time to go after them. The heads seemed a little bigger 

 than the ordinary Urial and the horns were strikingly different. 



Is there anything known of a separate species of sheep in N.-E. Persia ? 



J. W. WATSON, Capt., i.m.s. 

 Turbat-i-Hyderi, Persia, 

 4th October 1905. 



[As regards the varieties of the Urial or Sha (Ovis vignei), Dr. Blanford 

 does not separate the forms that have been described under the names of 0. 

 cycloceras (Hutton) and 0. blanfordi (Hume) specifically. The Sha of Ladak, 

 generally known as 0. vignei, is usually larger than the Urial of the Punjab, 

 Sind and Baluchistan, generally known as 0. cycloceras, and the circle made 

 by its horns is wider. In the variety from Kelat and Baluchistan, to which 

 the name blanfordi was applied, the horns diverge throughout so as to form 

 an open spiral instead of each lying in one plane or nearly so. Thus the tips 

 of the horns are very much farther apart than in the typical 0. vignei, in 

 which the horns in diverging are curved round nearly in a circle. 



E. Comber, 

 Honorary Secretary, 

 Mammal Department, Bo. Nat. Hist. Soc.] 



No. IV— A PANTHER PLACING ITS KILL UP A TREE. 



In the Field of 24th February there is an account, over the nom-de-plnrne 

 " Dibra Singh, " of the shooting of a panther that is specially interesting on 

 one point and perhaps worth bringing to the notice of members of the Society. 

 It is best explained by quoting the writer's words : — 



" I retraced my steps towards camp, and when within 500 yards of my tent, 

 and close to the garden, the attention of the hawk-eyed shikari was drawn to 

 some vultures on a tree. On going up to the tree we were astonished to find 

 the body of a nearly full-grown chital stag in the fork made by the lowest 

 branoh, about 8 feet from the ground. The trunk of this tree was absolutely 

 straight, but an examination of the trunk and of the ground beneath showed 

 that, however improbable it was, there remained no doubt that the stag had 

 been placed there by a panther. To remove the stag, build a machan, and 



