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



enemies or else much of the good done by killing the rats will be defeated 

 if their enemies are also killed. 



Killing rata when the plague is at its height will probably do little 

 good as Sir Walter Elliot has shown. 



N. B. KINNEAR. 



Bombay Nat. Hist. See, 

 9th March 1919. 



No. IX.— PORCUPINE'S METHOD OF SHEDDING QUILLS 



WHEN ATTACKED. 



Seeing R. D. Macleod's note in the Journal of the 15th January 1918 on 

 " a fight between a dog and a porcupine " and his wish for information as to 

 the porcupine's mode of attack, I give my personal experiences. At Quetta, 

 in 1885 a brother Officer and I went for a walk in uniform one evening, 

 taking with us two young grey hounds, 2 bull terriers, a fox terrier and a 

 retriever. At the foot of the hills, the dogs turned a fox out of the rocks 

 and killed it. When we came to another cavity in the rocks we let the .'> 

 terriers go in. Before long we heard barking and fighting and presently the 

 fox terrier came out with a quill through its lower lip and another through a 

 fore IcQ'. I then called the other 2 terriers as I knew how dangerous it was 

 for them. The bull terrier bitch came out with 4 or 5 quills in each socket 

 of her eyes and one through her chest and coming out of her side. These 

 we took out and later found her eyes had not been touched and they and the 

 wounds in her lungs healed up all right. While I was calling up the whole 

 for the bull terrier dog, out came a porcupine quite close to my face and 

 went for the two grey hounds with its quills laid back. When near them 

 it turned the quills forwards over its head and ran at them in turn, leaving 

 about a dozen quills in the side of each, then backed away. The quills are 

 loosened in the skin sockets. We had only canes so threw stones at it and 

 though we knocked out many quills ib got away into the rocks. The retrie- 

 ver cleverly kept out of its way, only barking. Soon another porcupine 

 came out and went back into the hole when stoned. The bull terrier dog- 

 never came out again. No doubt he got quills into his brain or heart and 

 had so many in him that he could not turn round and get out. A dog is no 

 match for a porcupine in its hole. 



R. LIGHT, Lt.-Col. 



Hastings, England, 

 16th October 1918. 



No. X.— RECORD FEMALE NILGIRI TAHR 

 {REMITRAGUS RYLOCIRIUS). 



In November I was out shooting " Nilgiri Tahr" on the Nelliampathies. 

 I had got within 500 feet of a herd, who were below me on precipitous 

 ground. I picked out what appeared to be a decent sized buck. The 

 beast turned out to be a doe taping 14". The biggest $ recorded in 

 Rowland Ward's book or in any other authority I have had the oppor- 

 tunity of consulting seems to tape only 11". 



A. P. KINLOCH, Lieut. 



CoLABA, Bombay, 

 'A\st January 1919. 



