A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF GILGIT. 97 
moment ; from the large grey form of S. aluco, of which I have 
examined fine female specimens from Stockholm and Tangier, 
with the wing 11°5, it differs in its much greater size (the 
male Gilgit bird being considerably larger than even the 
largest female of this race), in its paler and greyer colour, 
different character of markings, &c. 
This fine Owl is probably a permanent resident in the 
Gilgit district, and seems to keep closely to the forests. I 
obtained my specimens on the 30th September and 13th 
November. 
25.—Asio otus, Lin. (67.) 
The Long-eared Owl arrives early in March, and is com- 
mon up to the middle of May. Females are rather darker 
and more boldly marked than males; but the difference is not 
so conspicuous as in Asio brachyotus. 
26.—Asio brachyotus, Gmel. (68.) 
The Short-eared Owl is found in Gilgit on passage, being 
fairly common from the middle of April to the middle of 
May, and again on its way southwards from the beginning 
of November to the 20th December. The females are much 
darker than the males, and have the black marks more pro- 
minent and the general colour more buff. Major Biddulph’s 
remarks have reference to this sexual difference, I think, as 
he only had a male from Gilgit before him when his note was 
written. 
The largest specimen I have, and even that isa little smaller than Dr. Scully’s 
measurements, was shot on the Peshawur Mess House on the 17th January 1869, by 
Captain Nairne, then Brigade Major of Artillery. 
Its measurements (as recorded by him in the flesh) compare thus with Dr. 
Scully’s :-— 
T Ex. Ww. T. Ts. Bee 
Gilgit 187 426 127 86 1:8 1-46 
Peshawur 180 390 120 90 2-0 15 
Further east they run smaller. The following are dimensions of specimens, all 
carefully measured in the flesh :— 
L. Ex. W. Ae Ts. 13h Rip (5 
Simla Male 165 38:0 11:75 7:0 19 1:47 
Ditto 16-25 39'5 11:25 7:25 2:12 2°0 
Ditto 165 39:0 120 7-4 _ ib; 
Ditto 16 25 41-6 12:3 v (2 1:95 15 
Kussowlie Female 17:5 42:0 13:0 a9 —_ =— 
No one could possibly separate these from the Peshawur, or this latter from the 
Gilgit bird. The pale silvery colour holds as far as the Bhagiratti i think ; at any rate 
the most westerly specimen I have showing colour (though nothing like the deep tints 
ot the Sikhim birds) is from the valley of this river near Mr. Wilson’s place at Hursil. 
I have repeatedly, during the last seven years, called attention in Stray FraTHERs 
to this great difference in the colour of the Eastern and Western races of nivicolum, 
and I think it a pity that Dr. Scully should have given a new specific name to this 
Western form,—Eb.,S. F, 
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