MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 751 



No. XV —WILD DOGS HUNTING. 



I shot a wild dog {Cyon dukhunenais) the other day. I had just before shot 

 a black bear and was waiting on a ridge for another small ravine to be beaten 

 up to me, when I heard a pack of dogs on the ridge of the nala behind me 

 giving tongue — a sort of yapping bark. J cannot say that they were in full 

 cry, but they were evidently hunting, probaby after " Thar " (The Himalayan 

 Goat-antelope or Serow) or " Kakar " (The rib-faced or barking Deer), marks 

 of which I had seen on that hill the day before. As regards the question of 

 the wild dog giving tongue when hunting (see page 145, "Fauna of British 

 India," Mammalia) I should say they might ' open ' when they first strike a 

 trail to collect the pack and thereafter run 'mute' till in view. I certainly 

 should not have seen the dogs unless I had heard them two or three times, as 

 my back was turned and my attention in another direction, and it was the 

 second or third time they gave tongue before I saw where they were working 

 through the bamboo jungle and trees on the opposite hill. 



J. MANNERS SMITH, Major. 

 Nepal, July 28th, 1905. 



No. XVI— FOOD OF THE "MUSKRAT " OR THE GREY SHREW 



(CROCIDURA CCERULEA). 



Lately we have been troubled by having our young guinea pig sucklings eaten 

 by rats. 



By careful watching the depredator has been found to be the " Heavenly 

 Shrew,'' hitherto considered a harmless insect feeder. 



The method of procedure was for the shrew to get under the cage and to 

 attack the young ones through the meshes of the wire-netting bottom. In this 

 way the legs were eaten off and even the inside cleaned out of the little beast, 

 sometimes little being left but the skin. A shrew has twice been caught in the 

 act, and we have lost between 20 and 30 guinea pigs in this way lately. 



The available literature on the subject certifies to the fact that the usual food 

 of the muskrat is cockroaches and other insects, but a few instances of other 

 victuals being eaten are recorded. 



Thus Sterndale in the Mammalia of India quotes a correspondent of The Asian 

 from Ceylon who gives an account of a Muskrat attacking a large frog, 

 and holding on to it in spite of interference. 



He also quotes McMaster as certifying that these shrews eat bread, and as 

 having disturbed one evidently eating part of a large scorpion. 



Blanford ('' Fauna of British Iadia, " Mammalia) says that " the food of this 

 shrew consists mainly of insects, but meat is occasionally eaten by it." He 

 also adds that it has been accused of eating rice and pulse, but experiments by 

 Anderson disprove this. 



Notes on the p food of the Muskrat will be found in our Journal. Vol. X, 

 p. 330, and Vol. XIII, p. fi99. 



