508 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIIL 



specimens of them in spirit to enable them to be identified. They might 

 possibly be traceable in Day's " Fishes of Malabar," but I have not access to a 

 copy of the book. 



E. COMBER. 

 Karachi, Wih August 1907. 



No. XXII.— KEENNESS OF SIGHT IN BIRDS AND ANIMALS. 



It is extraordinary what different opinions one hears expressed as to the 

 keenness of eye-sight in animals and how few people appear to agree as to 

 any particular animal having long or short sight. The Felines, for instance, 

 are generally credited with long sight, but on page 1016 of Vol. XVII of our 

 Journal, Major Burton doubts that the tiger has keen sight because he has 

 known of instances where they have looked at him " with unseeing eyes." I 

 can also tell of a similar case, when a tigress took up her position directly 

 behind my "machan" and where I had least expected her, there being a village 

 not far oif and open fields within 15 yards of where I sat, and I had not even 

 taken the trouble to close up the back of the "machan" to any extent. 

 Thanks to some spur fowl, which gave her away, I noticed her, by twisting 

 round my neck, before she saw me. That she did see me I could not doubt, as 

 she looked hard and long straight at me and then quietly sat down. It was 

 then almost dark, and I longed for her to hurry up and approach the kill, 

 which lay in front of her, but sho had no intention of obliging. She would 

 turn her head away and look about, but very now and again bring it back 

 with a jerk, to have another look at me and seemingly could not quite make 

 me out, but had a faint suspicion that all was not right. I was dressed in 

 groen "shikar-cloth" with a h-it to match and must have blended well with the 

 surroundings. She sat there quite 10 minutes or more, when she suddenly got 

 up and walked off very fast into a bit of dense jungle, and that was the last 

 I saw of her, and a nasty stiff neck was the only result of my patience and not 

 daring to move for fear of frightening her. To return to the subject, how- 

 ever, is a case like this, sufficient to condemn the eye-sight ? An animal may 

 be as keen and longsighted as an eagle, yet not detect an absolutely stationary 

 object, particularly if its colouring harmonizes with its environments. How 

 many of us have stood staring at atcheetal stag, a serow, or even a huge thing 

 like a bison, at close quarters, when the breaking of a twig or some other 

 sound has warned you that your quarry is near, for perhaps a minute or 

 more, with " unseeing eyes," till the flap of an ear or even the droop of eyelid 

 has told you that the object you have been looking hard at is the animal 

 you are after ? " How on earth did I not see that at once ? " you 

 ask yourself, in amazement, as the whole form and every outline is now 

 clearly visible. The fact remains that you frequently do not, when the 

 animal stands absolutely motionless and the keenest eyed shikari is often 

 mistaken. If, however, comparing the human sight with that of an animal 

 will not prove my argument, let me refer my readers to the keen, sharp eyes 



