214 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



Is of this variety, so it is to he hoped that this variety will find its way int o 

 our gardens, though it is very questionable whether the seeds will reproduce 

 the variety, though the fact that other plants belonging to the same X. O. 

 Leguminosod, such as the white-flowered varieties of Arbus precatorius, and of 

 Erythrina indica, are reproduced from seed seems to promise success in regard 

 to this variety also. 



G. CAESTEXSEX 

 Bombay, 1st July, 1891; 



XL— A PAXTHEE EATIXG A PAXTHEE. 



Ox looking through the Society's Journal, Vol. IV. of 1889, I see a letter 

 from Mr. H. Littledale, dated September, 1889, headed " Bears being eaten 

 by Tigers," which at the time escaped my notice, or I would have sent an 

 account of what happened when I was down in Ceylon. 



In 1883 I was living at Haldamulla, in the Ouvah district. My bungalow, 

 being 3,300 feet above the sea, stood on the edge of a precipice and commanded 

 a splendid view of the low country between Hambantota and Galle. Gamo 

 was fairly plentiful : elephants, buffalo, panther, and sambhur could be 

 obtained within eight miles of my bungalow, so most of my spare time was 

 taken up stalking them, as "beating" was out of the question. 



On the 17th June, 1883, I started about twelve o'clock, leading my 

 pony down the hill for the first two miles, as it was too steep to ride. I 

 then rode across a plateau and again led my pony down a path used by tabulum 

 bullocks until I reached the "Wellawa Gunga. This river I had to cross two or 

 three times, after which the path alongside the river was good going until I 

 reached my destination, a village consisting of two or three huts, called 

 Nellwayao, 13 miles from Haldamulla. I arrived about 5 r.M. and immediately 

 asked for my tracker, a Cingalese by name Keralli. They told me he had gone 

 out to look for elephant tracks, so I had nothing to do but wait for his return : 

 he came back about half-past seven, and I asked him what he had seen. He 

 told me he had not come across any fresh tracks of elephants, but that as he 

 was going up a dry nullah, about two miles off, and close to the place where I 

 had killed an elephant a month before, he saw a panther come out of the 

 jungle into the nullah, and immediately afterwards another, only larger, 

 panther also appeared from the same side a few yards further up. Keralli hid 

 In hind a large rock and saw the larger panther attack the smaller one, and 

 they both commenced fighting about fifty yards from where he was hidden. 

 He took a shot with his rifle and hit the smaller one, which was underneath 

 and seemed to be getting the worst of the fight. 



Most of the Cingalese in the low country possess a gun of sorts, and in the 

 dry weather sit up'over water holes and on the banks of the rivers and pot deer 

 when they come down to drink ; and it is not an uncommon thing to meet them 



