MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 195 



the neck, and began, to drag it away. I shot this dog. It was a female, in the 

 prime of life, and had produced at least one family. The poisoned dog was a 

 two-thirds grown male, and probably his mother tried to drag him away. I 

 found no more dead dogs, but three or four places where they had vomited 

 up meat. The dogs had eaten up all the poisoned remains of the buffalo. 



Another <"av, in the evening, I killed a wild dog which was coming alone to 

 water, ahead of the pack which followed not far off. I cut off the tail, and 

 a strip of skin from the tail to the ears, and left the remains on a footpath. 

 Next day I went back. The dead dog had been taken away, and apparently 

 by wild dogs. It had certainly not been oaten on the spot. There were no 

 marks of a panther or hyaena. 



Do wild do:*3 carry off and burytheir dead under leaves or in a hole ? 



As strychnine rubbed into flesh does not prove fatal, can anyone suggest a 

 better plan for getting rid of these pests ? Is any other possible poison more 

 deadly ? I should have liked to try surrounding a pack of dogs with about 

 fifty jungle men, armed with axes and lathies, and think it possible one could 

 almost exterminate a pack in this way. The local forest guards said they 

 would try it. We must kill these brutes or they will soon become man-eaters^ 



Perhaps the number of wild dogs in this jungle accounts for the paucity 

 of tigers. Possibly the wild dogs find and eat the young tigers while the 

 mother is away. But I have seen a jungle where there were many tigers, 

 and many wild dogs. 



I am sending you the heart of a male panther (7'-5" round curves). I shot 

 him through the heart at fifty paces with a "577 rifle (low pressure cordite 

 and copper tube bullet). You will see that both ventricles have been torn 

 open. The heart lies flat on your hand with no cavities. This panther rolled 

 over to the shot, then galloped up a steep hill for thirty paces, circled 

 round and rolled over dead ten yards from where he started, having run 

 seventy paces. There was a heavy blood trail the whole way. From the start 

 not a drop of blood could have been pumped into the arteries by the heart. 



I was also shown the body of a wild boar about twenty feet up a tree. The 

 villagers who showed it to me said the boar, which was half grown, had been 

 killed by a panther and put up the tree. Of course, I know this is common 

 enough, but this particular tree had a large trunk and no branches for many 

 feet. 



F. W. CATON JONES, Lt.-Col., R.A.M.C. 

 Kamptee, 

 June loth, 1907. 



No. XIV.— THE CLIMATAL CHANGES OF MELA NIT IS LED A. 



May I offer a few remarks on this very interesting subject, raiVed in the last 

 number of the Journal, page 7(J9, begging indulgence if I make mistakes in 

 the absence of my books and collection. I never made experiments like 

 Col. Manders, which I regret, but I have observed the seasonal changes of 



