146 



• . MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I.— MEASUREMENTS OF MARKHOR AND URIAL HEADS. 



In case you keep records of heads I think these two which I was lucky 

 enough to get recently may be worth recording : — 



Ground. Leni/th. Base. I'ij) to Tip. 

 19-4-1916. Markhor. Kajnag. 57" 11^" 37" 



29-12-1916. Urial. Kalla Chitta. 34" 10" 18^" 



These are both as good heads as have been shot for some years. 



Hassan Abdal, n.w.f.p., A, L. MOLESWORTH, Capt. 



]4^A January 1917. 



No. [I.— JACKALS IN LOWER BURMA. 



It is a common belief that there are no jackals in Lower Burma, or at 

 all events in the lower Districts of Lower Burma, so I send you the skin of 

 one that I shot this morning, the 24th November 1916, in the North 

 Myanaung Reserve of the Henzada Forest Division, Kyangin Sub-Division. 

 I shot this animal when walking along an inspection path in the Reserve. 

 He was evidently hunting game for he came running along towards me 

 all the time looking into the jungle to his left. 



Twenty-nine years ago when I first came to the Henzada District, there 

 were no jackals and very few hares in the District. Now both are fairly 

 plentiful. About four years ago I caught a jackal cub in the eastern part 

 of the Kyangin Reserve, and again three years ago I got two cubs in the 

 Yenandaung Reserve, which is only forty miles north of Henzada town. 

 I have on several occasions seen jackals in the Kyangin, North Myanaung 

 and Yenandaung Reserves, and have come across their burrows. The 

 jackals in this District seem to have acquired the hunting habits of the 

 wild dog, for I have seen a pack of seven hunting deer not far from where 

 I shot the one- this morning, and I have seen kills of barking deer and 

 sambar near Tatkon where I shot the animal this morning, that were un- 

 doubtedly those of jackals. 



These jackals have either come across the Arakan Yomas, or else they 

 have worked their way down from the Thayetmyo District, possibly the 

 latter. 



While on the subject of jackals I may here mention that the three cubs 

 I got, we kept for quite a long time and they got quite tame and used to 

 run loose in the house and were great friends with my dogs. The one 1 

 got first, got a nasty sore on his back. He evidently went into the kitchen 

 and the cook threw boiling water on him. The skin came oft' and a nasty 

 sore formed which attracted flies, and to avoid which the poor beast had to 

 hide about in dark places. One morning he went into the Doctor's com- 

 pound and hid in the godown under a box. Some servant found the poor 

 beast and told the lady of the house that some terrible animal had got 

 into the godown, so they were ordered to kill it, and so proceeded to go 

 with long jjoles with which they jabbed at the poor beast. Eventually 

 some one came and told my wife that our jackal had got into the Doctor's 

 godown and that the servants were trying to kill it, so my wife sent men 

 and rescued the poor beast and brought it back to my house. My wife 

 noticed that the jackal could not eat meat, and one day thought that a 

 bone had stuck in its mouth and so opened it to try and get it out. To 

 her horror she found that what she took for a bone from the food was 

 Jiothing more nor less than the poor beast's jaw bone which had got out of 



