MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1041 



No. IV —CARACAL {FELIS CABACAL) AND HUNTING LEOPARD 

 {CYNAELURUS JUBATUS) IN MIRZAPUR, U. P. 



The following notes on two uncommon mammals in Mirzapur District 

 may perhaps be of interest in connection with the Survey. 



On 28th December 1912, during a sambhar beat in lijiht jungle about 25 

 miles S. of the Ganges, a small animal that I did not recognize came out at 

 very close range. 1 blew a large piece of its back away with a 600 Express 

 but it made ofl' and took refuge in a small nala where it was shortly after- 

 wards despatched with a shot gun. It proved to be a female lynx {^F. 

 caracal). My measurement made it 34 inches long (body 27 and tail 7) 

 apparently a rather small example. Unfortunately the only memento I 

 have of it are the claws, as shortly after 1 got the head mounted it was des- 

 troyed in a bungalow fire. This is considered locally a distinctly rare 

 animal. I saw not long ago in the possession of a friend a very fine skin 

 of a cheetah {C.jubatus) that had been killed in 1916 by villagers about 30 

 miles South of Mirzapur, which is on the Ganges near Benares. I think 

 about 5 have been obtained in the last 25 years, one being shot while it 

 was in the act of stalking a sambhar. The one whose skin I saw had been 

 killed in the neighbourhood of a grassy plain which held some Black buck. 



LucKNOW, IQth August 1919. G. O. ALLEN, i.c.s. 



[Mr. Allen's note on the hunting leopard is most interesting as very little is 

 known about the distiibution of this animal in India. The distribution of the 

 hunting leopard in India, according to the latest books on Natural History is not 

 correct and we would urge members to send in any informa+ion th( y have on the 

 subject. Notes on old and recent records of hunting leopards would be most 

 valuable. We have been for some time collecting old records and hope shortly to 

 publish them. It is advisable when writing of this animal to call it the hunting 

 leopard and not the cheeta, a name used in many parts for the leopard or panther, 

 Felis pardus. — Eds.] 



No. v.— FIELD RATS IN THE DECCAN IN 1879. 



I notice in the last number of the Journal an interesting note on the 

 probability of a rat plague in India following the famine prevailing last 

 winter. 



I served in the Sholapur District in 1879 and remember writing long 

 reports dealing with the rats and no doubt other officers did the same and 

 probably much information might be obtained from the Bombay Secretariat 

 for the years 1879 and 1881. Government gave in 1879 rewards for killing 

 rats, I think, a rupee per hundred. These were paid by the village officers 

 of the big villages and were paid between (I think) 4 and 6 p.m. As a check 

 on the payments, I used to ride over and appear unexpectedly about 4 

 and make the payments for the day in different villages. If the number of 

 rats brought in was about the average it showed there was not much fraud, 

 but when tae payments were greatly above the day sample one knew 

 something was wrong. 



It gave one much information as to the various rats which were doing the 

 damage — and when one examined the rats any woman brought for reward 

 one could pretty well guess the type of village she came from. In the dry 

 hilly villages these were almost all Indian Gerbilleo ; in the bagait villages 

 they were the " kok " rat but the most destructive in that part were one or 

 two species of spiny mice or rats. 



The numbers of rats caused an immense increase in birds of prey. Nests 

 of Aquila vindhiana and Elanus caevuleus being found everywhere and the 

 birds already commencing to build before the young left their present nest. 



