MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 493 



It is, of course, a well-known fact that tigers invariably commence feed- 

 ing at the hind quarters of a kill. That panthers as invariably begin their 

 feed at the foroquarters is a popular belief, repeated in a recent work on 

 the Game Animals of India (11. Lydekker, 1907). In the writer's experience 

 it is the exception for a panther to commence feeding at the foroquarters 

 of an animal and doubtless most sportsmen will concur that this is so. 



Contributors to the Oriental Sporting Magazine, when they mention the 

 matter, express conflicting opinions. 



Poisoning Ticers. 



The Bhowany Taluq of the Coimbatore District in the Madras Presidency 

 was a tiger slayers paradise in 1873. Tigers were so numerous that 

 poisoning was resorted to, these operations resulting in recovery of 13 

 poisoned tigers, while 24 vomitting beasts crept away to die or recover 

 according to their fate. Also 14 tigers were shot by shikaris, and 2 were 

 trapped. 



Another method of slaying tigers was ventilated by a contributor and 

 received the approval of the Editor of the day. It is what might be 

 topically described as very " Home-like'' the present day sportsman's 

 ideas on such matters. An instance is recorded in 1871 of a tigress climb- 

 ing a tree in the Neilghery hiUs. The tree trunk was a foot in diameter 

 and perpendicular and branchless to a height of 25 feet. The beast 

 climbed up, and lay along a branch some six feet above the lowest bough. 

 Such a performance is very exceptional, but makes one feel quite unsafe 

 at the usual 10 or 12 feet ! 



In the Days of the Emperor Akbar. 



" Young Nimrod", a sportsman of experience disguised under this nom- 

 de-plume, contributed a series of very interesting articles on the methods 

 of shikar as pursued in the time of the Emperor Akbar and recorded in the 

 *' Ain-i-Akbari.'' Space and time do not permit of lengthy extracts. That 

 some of the methods were cruel is illustrated by the recommendation that 

 the tethered goat should have red pepper put in the eyes to ensure 

 sufhcient bleating ! The device of strewing hay smeared with "glue" 

 on the ground around the tethered bait so that the tiger gets his claws, 

 paws and face covered with sticky grass which also gets into his eyes, is 

 ingenious. History does not relate that it is practical I The presumption 

 is that the tiger is found rolling about helpless in the near vicinity of 

 the " kill " or tethered bait. 



R. W. BURTON, Lt.-Col., 



Indian Army. 

 Bombay, Srd October 1917. 



No. IV.— FURTHER NOTES ON BIRDS NESTING IN THE 



TONS VALLEY. 



Accounts of two birds nesting trips to the Harke Dun, near the source of 

 the Tons river, undertaken in June 1896 and 1897 are given at pages 64-72 

 and 468-473 of Vol. XI of this Journal. 



In June 1917, I again visited the same locality and wish to add a few 

 notes supplementary to those previously recorded. 



Lophophanes dichrous (The Brown Crested Tit). — On arriving in the hills 

 on April .30 at Deoban, elevation 9,000, about 4 miles from Chakrata, 

 I noticed the Brown Crested Tit fairly common in the Kharsu oak forest. 

 A little patient watching and 1 was rewarded by seeing one of these birds 

 disappear into a circular hole in a rotten oak branch, about 20 feet from the 

 ground, which proved to contain the nest. 

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