748 JOURNA L, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



Buck), Gazelles, from the base over or round the outside curve to the tip. In 

 Markkor the tape was run round the spirals, in Black Buck the measurement 

 was taken straight and in Deer from the base of the bur along the outside 

 curve to the tip of the main tine. 



Circumference. — In all horns, except those of Deer, at the base. In Deer 

 above the brow tine. 



Widest inside. — In Cattle this measurement needs no explanation, but in Deer 

 between the most distant points of the beam was the space measui-ed. 



Tip to tip. — There is no explanation necessary about this measurement, 



except in the Deer, where it was taken between the points to which the length 



was measured. 



N. B. KINNEAR. 

 Bombay. October 1909, 



No. VIII.— DO WILD ANIMALS DIE A NATURAL DEATH? 



I was much interested in reading in the last number of the Society's Journal 

 Col. Evans' Note on the question of " whether animals die a natural death"? An 

 experience which I had in Chanda last Easter may perhaps be of interest to 

 the members of our Society. I had gone out for the holidays in the hope 

 of getting a shot at an old solitary Bull Bison, which lived about sixteen 

 miles from Chanda. My shikari had gone out before and was tying up for 

 a tiger and when I arrived I found that he had kills out in the direction in 

 which this old bull lived, so I was forced the morning after I arrived to go 

 out in another direction. I came up with a herd but did not get a shot. In 

 the evening I went towards the nullah, where the old bull was said to live, 

 and on my way there met the shikari who told me that he had just found 

 the old bull lying dead in the nullah. I went along with him and sure 

 enough there was a fine old bull lying dead in some longish grass near a 

 pool in the nullah. He had evidently been dead only a few hours, as the 

 flies had not got properly into him as yet and there were hundreds of vul- 

 tures waiting on the trees for their feast. The Bison was in very good con- 

 dition and had a fine pair of horns, very much worn away at the tips. I 

 knew that foot and mouth disease was prevalent in these jungles at the 

 time, and I examined his hoofs and mouth to see if there was any trace of 

 disease. They were quite sound as far as I could make, and I do not think 

 it is possible that he can have died of foot and mouth disease, as he would 

 certainly not have been in such good condition. The same would I fancy 

 be true of rinderpest, and in any case there was no rinderpest about at the 

 time, as far as I could find out. I had not enough men with me to 

 be able to turn him over, but there was no mark of a bullet in his skin when 

 it was taken off. There were no marks of a struggle on the ground, so that 

 he had evidently died quite a peaceful death. I am entirely at a loss to 

 know to what cause death can have been due. Perhaps some member of 

 our Society can solve the riddle ? I was thus very nearly in a position to 



