516 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



No. III. (a)— SOME PANTHER NOTES. 



The following notes on two or three recent experiences may be of interest. 

 Looking over Vol. XIV of the Journal, Mr. Bright's account of the strange 

 behaviour of a panther reminded me of an incident which occurred last June. 

 I was sitting up over a goat one night in the Danta State, hoping that the 

 panther whom I expected would not turn up before the rising of the moon. He 

 appeared and killed when the moon was just above the horizon, but obscured by 

 a cloud : I could just see the goat, which was black and white, but could not 

 make out the form of the murderer at all, so determined to wait for a little 

 more light upon the scene. Unfortunately the panther did not seem disposed 

 to humour me, and almost immediately began to try and drag the goat away. 

 The latter not being very securely tied, I did not see the force of this proceeding 

 and fired. The shot was followed by a dead silence for the space of a miunte or so, 

 and I had begun to think that the panther must have been killed dead, when to my 

 astonishment the goat began to move, and the offending cloud having just got 

 out of the way of the moon's rays, I could dimly distinguish the outline of the 

 panther dragging at the goat again. My first shot had been a clean miss, and 

 had not disturbed the beast's equanimity sufficiently to make him withdraw a 

 single step ! The second shot was successful in breaking his back. 



A friend of mine had an almost precisely similar experience in the adjoining 

 district a year ago, the panther in his case merely pausing in its meal for a 

 minute or two, after the firing of an unsuccessful shot. 



One day last March, I was beating near D for a panther, who evinced a 



rooted disinclination to take the fine indicated for her by the beaters. Twice 

 she contrived to break back, but was marked down again. About half-way up 

 the hill, near the foot of which I was posted and about 90 yards distant from me, 

 was a tall tree nearly bare of leaves, except for a few at the top. Soon after the 

 "honk" had commenced for the third time, I caught sight of the panther as 

 she sprang up out of the long grass into the trunk of the tree I have mentioned, 

 then climbed, like a great cat, up to the top where she sat down quietly. 



From her look-out in the tree top she watched the approaching beaters for 

 3 or 4 minutes, and then, having seen enough, climbed leisurely down and dis- 

 appeared in the grass again. Under the circumstances, the panther's object in 

 climbing a tree would, no doubt, ordinarily be to seek concealment : but why 

 then select a tree, which, all but bare of leaves, was absolutely unsuited to such 

 a purpose, more especially seeing that there were, as a matter of fact, several 

 trees well supplied with foliage close by ? I suppose it would be unscientific to 

 express a belief that the animal's ascent into a tall bare tree, calculated to 

 afford the best possible view, was one of deliberate choice, made with the sole 

 and express intention of studying the disposition of its enemies ! 



The end of this panther was an unusual one. I had a longish shot at her, and 

 hit her through the body, but she got away for the time being. In the course 

 of the following night, however, she, in some way or other, contrived to fall 

 into a well, where she was found drowned in the morning. 



