A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF GILGIT. 93 
15.—Nisaetus pennatus, Gel. (31.) 
The Booted Eagle is a summer visitor to Gilgit, and is 
common from the middle of March to the first week in October ; 
it breeds at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The dark and 
light forms are about equally common, the difference in colour 
not being dependent upon sex. ‘The iris seems to be variable 
in colour, some having it buff marked with darker spots, 
others orange, and one brownish yellow. In four males the 
wings varied in length from 14°3 to 15:3 inches; in two 
females they measured 15°7 and 165; a male weighed 1 lb. 
10 oz., and a female 2 Ib. 9 oz. A nestling, captured on the 
12th July, had the underparts pale. 
16.—Pandion haliaetus, Lin. (40.) 
The Osprey is not common in Gilgit, and probably occurs 
there only on migration. It has been observed throughout 
March and during the first week in April, and again in 
September on its way southwards. I never saw it in winter. 
A male shot on the 16th September measured :—Length, 22 
inches; wing, 17-7 ; tail, 9; tarsus, 2°1; bill from gape, 1°5; the 
closed wings extended half an inch beyond the tip of the tail. 
In this specimen the feathers of the upper surface are margined 
with white, the bars on the tail are distinct, and the mottling 
on the breast is mostly fulvous. 
17.—Buteo ferox, Gimel. (45.) 
I preserved 17 specimens of this Buzzard in Gilgit; but my 
series leaves me still greatly in the dark as to the explanation 
of the perplexing variations in size and plumage of this species. 
In the adults the males have the wing 16°15 to 17°4 inches ; length 
of tarsus, 2°8 to 3:4; bare portion of tarsus in front, 1:1 to 1:7. 
In the females, wing, 17:2 to 18:4; tarsus, 3 to 3°3; bare portion 
of tarsus, 1°2 to1:6. The smallest female has the dimensions con- 
siderably below what is given for B. ferox ; but there is no doubt 
about the determination of the sex, and it cannot be referred 
to any other species. The colour of the iris is very variable, 
ranging from brown to yellowish cream-colour. In plumage 
hardly two specimens are alike; but certainly the oldest bird 
is the palest in the series, and has the tail salmon-coloured, 
with only traces of imperfect bars near the tip. Captain 
Wardlaw-Ramsay’s interesting discovery of a nestling of this 
species in the melanistic phase of plumage (Jbzs, 1880, p. 47), 
effectually disposes of the view that the darkest examples are 
only old birds. 
