■J70 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATORAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



A.t hill stations dogs are not infrequently taken when out with their 

 owners, but I do not recollect hearing of the dog being seized actually in 

 its owner's presence. The thief is generally invisible on such occasions. 

 I see in the Journal many notes under the heading " Boldness of pan- 

 thers". These generally refer to instances of these animals returning to 

 a kill after being fired at once or even oftener. I recollect one returning 

 to the carcase of a nilgai three times, and being fired at each time. 

 I think the authors of these notes are too ready to ascribe almost human 

 powers of reasoning to the panther. It is not likely that the animal is 

 aware that a projectile has been propelled at it, and that it will connect 

 the report of the rifle with an attempt on its life. A friend of mine shot 

 in quick succession three panthers that came to feed on the carcase of a 

 donkey they had killed. Panthers commonly reside in the near vicinity 

 of villages, and become used to the presence of human beings, but even 

 where they are not molested they are seldom seen, although they may be 

 heard prowling in the neighbourhood in the darkness, I recollect one com- 

 ing to drink at a well in the compound of a forest bungalow where I was 

 staying. My bed was placed outside as it was hot weather and the panther 

 must have passed close to me although 1 did not see it. A bear came in 

 the same night, and I ran after it bare-footed, but did not get a shot. 



1 cannot agree with that fiue sportsman and naturalist and brave 

 soldier, the late F. C Selous, who says in his African Nature Notes and 

 Reminiscences " nothing is more certain than that all carnivorous animals 

 hunt almost entirely by scent". African conditions may have led to the 

 greater development of the powers of scent in the carnivora. My experience 

 is that tigers and panthers hunt almost entirely by sight, and perhaps 

 partly depend on hearing. This has been proved time and again by 

 these beasts of prey passing close to bufr'aloes or goats, tied up as bait, 

 without seeing them, owing to the bait having made neither sound 

 nor movement. I have known many occasions when a tiger has 

 passed close to an animal thus tied up, and has killed another a few 

 hundred yards farther on. For this reason, that they hunt by sight 

 and not by scent, one ties up the bait on or near a path or watercourse or 

 near a pool of water, so that the prowling tiger may come upon it during 

 his nightly wanderings. 



One may go further and say that the popular notion that these animals 

 have powerful olfactory nerves is a common fallacy. This has been fre- 

 quently proved by sportsmen sitting in concealed shelters on the ground 

 when a panther will prowl round in close proximity, perhaps only four or 

 five feet ofi", without detecting the prpsence of a human being. In the 

 case of panthers having the habit of prowling round human habitations this 

 may not appear conclusive, as it may be thought that they have acquired a 

 character of indifference to the smell of man. But the same thing has 

 been observed in forest-dwellers which prey, not on stray goats and dogs, but 

 on the feral denizens of the jungle. 



But the powers of vision of these animals are apparently not very good. 

 They at once detect movement, but fail to distinguish a motionless 

 object. Whiskers appear to help. I saw a pauther, driven out below me in 

 noisy beat, using his whiskers very freely ; they were set and bristling and 

 moving backwards and forwards. These animals, like tigers, seldom look 

 up, but I have known one, driven out in a beat, attack a man in a tree. 



The panther is not as impatient of thirst as the tiger and may be found 

 at a distance from water, but the tiger seldom strays far from stream or 

 pool. The tiger is fond of lying in water during hot weather, I recollect 

 one coming along in the beat dripping from the midday bath. My shikaris 

 averred that, this animal, which was undoubtedly unusually addicted to 



