872 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



Cuculus canorus, L. — The Cuckoo. 



Cheesman heard the Cuckoo at Kermanshah and saw two at Qazvin, 20th 

 June, and I saw se-veral young birds, presumably on passage in the stony country 

 round Menjil, 12th October. It is very much to be desired that some one 

 will preserve a series of cuckoos from Persia. 



Bubo bubo nikolskii, Zarudny. — Eagle Owl. 



2 cJ , Kermanshah — November— December 1918. 



I saw and shot two Eagle-Owls in the little wood on the outskirts of the town 

 of Kermanshah ; they were sitting most conspicuously on the branches of leaf- 

 less trees, and I killed them without dijBficulty with a collecting gun. The wings 

 measure 403 and 410 mm., and Dr. Hartert who has seen the skins is of the 

 opinion that they probably belong to the race named nikolskii by Zarudny 

 (1905) ; there is no material of this race available for comparison. I have com- 

 pared the specimens with upwards of two dozen B. b. turcomanus : apart from . 

 their smaller size, the under surface is darker and more heavily streaked than 

 that of the darkest turcomanus, and the upper side is as dark as that of an 

 unusually dark specimen of that race. 

 Otus scops pulchellus (Pall.) ( *? ) — Scops Owl. 

 2c?, 1$, Tehran— June (R. E. C). 



" 8th June. Gulahek, Tehran. Three eggs in a deserted Magpie's nest, 

 12 feet from ground in thick woodland : eggs equally incubated. No addition 

 had been made to the Magpie's nest. At least twelve birds calling all night in 

 the legation gardens at Gulahek" (R. E. C). Series of Scop's owl from various 

 parts of Persia are a desideratum ; the validity of Pallas' race pulchellus to which 

 I have referred these specimens, is very questionable. The males' wings mea- 

 f5ure 148, 151 mm., the female's 155 mm. 



Strix {Syrnium) aluco, sub-sp. — Tawny Owl. 



The Tawny Owl breeds in the compound of the Imperial Bank of Persia at 

 Resht. It is particularly to be regretted that I obtained no specimens, but so 

 far as we know the Tawny Owl of the Caspian Provinces is identical with that 

 of Western Europe. 



Athene ncctua, sub-sp. — Little Owl. 

 1 cJ , Qazvin — ■24th September. 



The Little Owl is not rare in the plateau and is resident even in the bleakest 

 places, and at least as high as 8,000 feet. The only specimen obtained (wing 169 

 mm) is nearer to A. n. bactriana, Hutton, than to any other named form, but is 

 much greyer than any specimen of that race at Tring or the British Museum, 

 and this is true even when it is compared with other freshly moulted birds. 

 In all particulars it is extremely like two specimens in the British Museum, one 

 from the Taurus and the other from the Tamanlar Dagb. 



Falco subbuteo subbuteo, L. — The Hobby, 



1 $ , Enzeli— 28th June. 



1 imm., Qazvin — 18th September. 

 I have no note of the date on which the Hobby arrived in Gilan, but it was 

 quite common during the summer at Astara, Enzeli, Qazvin and Tehran ; I 

 have definite breeding records from all these places, and we found a nest 

 on 28th June at Enzeli at the top of an alder tree in an old Magpie's nest ; this 

 nest contained two fresh eggs, and the female which Cheesman shot from 

 this nest laid a third egg as she died. 



Falco tinnunculus, L. — Common Kestrel. 



Cheesman found a nest of the Common Kestrel at Gulahek near Tehran on 

 11th June; it contained young birds. He definitely identified the j)arents. 

 Aquila chrysaetus, L. — Golden Eagle, 



saw a Golden Eagle twice at very close range at Qazvin in. December 1918. 



