  I discuss the spectral properties of short GRBs detected by BATSE and compare
them with long events. The detailed modeling of short GRB spectra shows that
their being (on average) harder than long events (as it has been found by
comparing their hardness ratios) is indeed due to a harder low energy spectral
component (i.e. the powerlaw of the Band or cutoff-powerlaw model) in short
GRBs which, instead, have a peak energy similar to long events. Another open
issue is the distance scale to short GRBs. While the few redshift measurements
suggests that they are at z<1, statistical studies (with local galaxies or
X-ray selected clusters) suggest that they should be even more local.
