266 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



dated the 9th February, 1891, and soon after that date he reported his arrival 

 to me, and finally closed his operations at the end of April. During this period 

 he submitted weekly reports of his action, and the Chief Commissioner was 

 regularh kept informed of their contents. 



In the Narsinghpur District there were 23 persons killed and 2U wounded, 

 and in the Hoshangabad District the loss of life was reported to be 95 persons, 

 13 large wolves and 25 cubs were destroyed; of these, 6 wolves and 15 cubs 

 were disposed of before Mr. Playfair commenced operations, and 7 wolves and 

 10 cubs were destroyed under Mr. Playf air's supervision. The expenditure 

 incurred by Mr. Playfair in rewards for the animals destroyed and other 

 incidental expenses amounted to Es. 254-9-0. 



There have been no deaths reported since the 13th March, so that we may 

 fairly hope that the action that has been taken in the direction of wolf-des- 

 truction has lid this part of the country of a dangerous scourge. There is still 

 one she-wolf left in the Bankheri circle, but I hope that it may be destroyed 

 before the rains by the people who are now looking for it. 



MEMORANDUM ON WOLF-KILLING OPERATIONS IN 1891. 



i E the beginning of August, 1890, wolves appear to have taken to killing 

 children in the District of Hoshangabad, and when the Dhoodhee river became 

 shallow they appear to have crossed and carried on their depredations in the 

 Narsinghpur District, but chiefly in the Sainkheri Out-post circle bordering 

 the Hoshangabad District. 



The cause of their having turned man-eaters is difficult to assign. People 

 say that it was probably due to their having eaten the corpses of people who 

 had not been sufficiently deeply buried. It is well known that wolves 

 frequently kill children up-country, but not in the wholesale manner they have 

 done in Hoshangabad. 



The one great difficulty in hunting down the wolves is the inability to find 

 any clue to their retreats, and the distances travelled by them after committing 

 any depredations. They generally lie in the open in "Dal," Hemp or 

 " Jowra" fields and in little patches of Babul or Mowa jungle, but they do not 

 keep to the same spot, but frequently move. Before they took to man-eating, 

 a pack of seven or eight used frequently to be seen in the Anjun river by 

 villages Deori and Oodeypur, and little children could drive the whole p 

 away, but since August tbey have become more erratic in their movements. 

 Except when they have their young and are driven to it through fear, they do 

 not live in holes ; and in the case of the Kookurpa cubs the mother used to go 

 into the hole and feed the young ones, while the old male apparently remained 

 outside. Their staple food appears to be goats and young ponies, and they are 

 said by people not to eat carcases of animals, but this I think requires modifi- 

 'on. as I have heard instances to the contrary from good authority. 



