MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 661 



No. Vll.— SPOTTED DEER {AXIS AXIS) AND WILD DOGS 

 ( C UON D UKHVN EN SIS) . 



On the 4th of January I went out from my camp for an evening stroll 

 after cheetal. I took with me three long dogs and a terrier in case I 

 wounded an animal. Going through the jungle I saw a fine little fox 

 slipping away, so, as there seemed to be no cheetal just there, 1 loosed my 

 dogs on the fox. They went off, and I lost sight of them. Before they 

 came back I heard from a small teak plantation in the opposite direction 

 the unmistakable noise of a pack of wild dogs in full cry. I rushed along 

 in that direction, and had only run about 20 yards when some cheetal 

 hinds rushed out past me with two wild dogs stretched at full speed after 

 them. I could not get a shot in, and they disappeared over a small hill. 

 I then dashed into the teak plantation as I heard more wild dogs calling 

 there. My orderly caught a glimpse of five of them, but 1 did not ; and 

 I turned back to collect my own pack as I had visions of their being killed 

 by superior numbers of wild dogs. I assured myself that my dogs had 

 returned, and then 1 proceeded in the direction the first lot of cheetal 

 hinds had been chased. I suddenly saw a wild dog standing on a little 

 hill about 100 yards away. I moved a bit closer, and saw there were two 

 dogs. They both looked rather out of breath and excited. Suddenly one 

 of them dashed forward at something I had not seen before and which 

 now turned out to be a small cheetal fawn. This fawn had been lying on 

 the ground, and had suddenly jumped to its feet and tried to escape. The 

 dog which rushed at it merely knocked it over and then stood aside. 

 The fawn again made a dash to escape, and the other dog rushed after it 

 and knocked it over. Neither made any attempt to tackle or kill it. I 

 was dodging about trying to get a steady shot, but could not on account of 

 the dogs' movements and trees in the way. The third time the fawn 

 sprang up it luckily rushed past me. One dog dashed in pursuit, and, as 

 it passed, I dropped on one knee and whistled. The dog broke away from 

 me, but drew up about oO yards off' staring at me, so that I had no difii- 

 culty in knocking it over. The other dog went off like a flash. So did the 

 fawn, and seemed none the worse for its tumbles. I was using a Manlicker 

 rifle with nickel bullets, and the wounded dog being shot on the stomach 

 went about two miles before dying, i tried to put my dogs on to him, but 

 there were too many fresh cheetal traces all over the place for this to 

 succeed. I have never before heard of wild dogs playing with their prey. 



J. A. DUKE, D.s.p. 

 NiMAR, C. P., Uh March 1919. 



No. VIII.— EXPECTED PLAGUE OF FIELD EATS IN 1920. 



The famine of 1918-19 will almost certainly be followed by a rat plague 

 in North Gujarat, liajputana, South East Sind, Kathiawar and the East 

 Deccan in the winter of 1920-21. This sequence — monsoon failure followed 

 by a plague of rats two years later — is now well known and established. 

 The following are the best authenticated cases : — 



Failure Eat plague 



of monsoon in winter of 



1876 1878-79. 



1899 1901-02. 



1911 1913-14. 



In the Statistical Atlas of the Bombay Presidency, Edn 1906, in discussing 



the rat plague after the 1899 famine, the schedule on p. 16 attributes the 



plague to the winters both of 1900-01 and 1901-02. But this is evidently 



