272 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



doubt presented to , the animal in the effort to protect one's self. A 

 wounded panther which seizod me got hold of my fore-arra, raised to cover 

 my throat. When its weight bore me to the ground, it seized and bit 

 deeply into the thigh placing one paw on the calf of the. leg ^hich the 

 claws penetrated. Nearly aU the men I have seen mauled have been 

 seized by the arm or shoulder. Those attacked by man-eatera are taken 

 unawares and come under a different category, and are usually seized by 

 the throat ; but I recollect the case of a woman being dragged by the 

 leg out ot the verandah of a house where she was sleeping. 



How does the panther attack and kill its prey ? We read everywhere of 

 the great caniivora "springing" on their prey. From a position above the 

 quarry it is probable that a spring will complete the stalk. But in -my 

 experience these animals run rapidly on to and rush up and seize tho 

 victim. The panther above referred to that attacked me came rapidly 

 ventre-a-terre uttering low growls : there was no " spring,'' and I have 

 never seen such action ; but the attacks I ha-'O seen have generally been 

 by wounded and angry animals. A panther took a goat within ten yards 

 of a tree in wh cM I was watching for him. A wooded nullah was close by. 

 From this the panther rushed in broad daylight and seized the goat by 

 the throat at the same time clasping its forequarters with paws : I fired on 

 the instant hoping to save the goafs life and the panther dropped dead beside 

 its victim Tho ^oat was nob borne to the ground and the neck was not dis- 

 located, but the fatal fang holes were in the throat, from which the life- 

 blood was welling. As regards prey, few animals came amiss to the 

 panther. Of wild animals he kills many pig, nilgai, and deer; hares and 

 peafowl are caught ; in a district where 1 have found more panthers than 

 elsewhere, the Inclian antelope was a common prey, the does falling victims 

 more often than black bucks. Of domesticated animals, calves, donkeys, 

 ponies, dogs and goats are common victims. Having killed its prey tb» 

 panther drags it away a-id devours it at leisure under a tree or bnsh. or 

 fiomntimes conpeals it in the fork of a tree. Unlike the tiger, which begins 

 eating the haunches, tho panther begins at the pelvis as a rule and works 

 up to the chest. I have, however, known a panther begin eating at the 

 haunch of a buffalo calf, of which the tail was also bitten off. Tho kill may 

 not infreijuei:tly be found covered with dead leaves to conceal it from 

 vultures, whichhunt by sight, or placed in the fork of a tree for the same 

 purpose.' I have seen the remains of a barking deer thus deposited in 

 the fork of a tree some eight feet from the ground. In the Field of the 

 24th February 1906, it is recor.led that a full-grown chital stag was found 

 eight feet up in a tree where it had been placed by a panther ; and a noto 

 in the Journal No. XVIII, page 19o. relates how a half-grown boar was 

 found similarly placed at a height of twenty feet from the ground. The 

 body of a Brinjara boy killed by a panther was found five feet up. in the 

 for'K of a mohwa tree; the skull, stripped of flesh, lay in; an adjacent 

 nullah. In fact, panthers are good tree-climbers, but their habits ara 

 apparently nnt as arboreal as those of the jaguar. 1 shot one which was 

 said by the local inhabitants to prey oil the langnr monkeys which lived 

 about, a neighbouring temple and the surrounding trees. They said 

 that it used to chase the monkevs in the evenin-.'. I saw these same 

 Ian Mir.s playinsi leapfrog exactly like a pack of schoolbovs; perhaps in 

 celebration of the death of their enemy! In Vohi ne XY, page .JIG 

 of the Journal. Major Mosse gives an interesting account of a paother 

 taking to a tree when driven out of long' grass, but not for pi rposes 

 iOf . concealment. ?ts the tr^O; f^V ■ destitute of leaves, I found the 

 remains of a monkey in thtf Rtoma<ph>of a panther, and a , spojrKsTrian tells 

 ,*)f a monkey so killed in Volume JiVJ^ iia,ge,7.54. ^ A.native,.t^ld him that 



