1314 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



higher-pitched note invariably upset the cadence of the lower, the effect 

 being quite ludicrous. Whether this was a rival, a mate, or a young 

 " Scully " getting his first singing lessons I never discovered. When flying 

 about at night a note repeatedly uttered by these owls sounded like 

 " Khawak." 



From an examination of the disgorged pellets it appeared that the prin- 

 cipal food in the breeding season consists of small rodents of the Micromys 

 and microtus genera which abound in these forests. Occasional pellets 

 showed bits of the wing cases {elytra) of beetles. I saw no remains of birds. 

 One method of hunting at dusk is as follows : — The owl flits silently to 

 the horizontal trunk of a birch or other tree (at these elevations, 9,000 ft. 

 and over, trees on any slope, owing to the pressure of snow in winter 

 issue horizontally from the soil before they curve up vertically) under 

 which it has marked down the hole of a mouse or vole and there remains 

 motionless. As the little rodent cautiously creeps forth in search of food 

 there is a swift pounce and the owl gets the entree of his supper. 



Some writers on Natural History aflirm that the " Hoot " of an owl is a 

 hunting cry which they suppose terrifies small birds and mammals into 

 movement so enabling the owl to locate and swoop on them. In the case 

 of the present species the cry, by twilight at any rate, was certainly not 

 used for this purpose for it was generally uttered from the top of a high 

 fir tree on rising ground and repeated often for ten minutes at a time. 



Like most members of the family pairs of these owls have their own 

 hunting preserves into which no other individuals of the species are per- 

 mitted to enter. Three separate patches of forest around Sonemarg each 

 held its own pair of Scully's Wood Owls. 



The graceful flight and hover of the Kestrel {Tinnunculus alaudarius) 

 was occasionally to be seen over the '' Murg." Twice I observed a Kestrel 

 stoop at and give chase to small birds in best approved peregrine style. On 

 the first occasion the quarry was a Grey Wagtail {Motacilla melanope) at 

 which constant deadly stoops were made, the wagtail only just escaping 

 by flying into a fir tree. The second instance was the stooping at and 

 chasing of a flock of Stoliczkas Mountain Finches, but in this case it was 

 probably play only. 



