754 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



No. XX.-SHOOTING NOTES FROM THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 



I send you the following extracts from my diary kept while shooting in 

 the Central Provinces during last April and May. 



1. While strolling in the jungle about sunset I was attracted bv monkeys 

 •' swearing. " On going towards the sound I came on an old monkey (Langoor) 

 just killed by a panther. The panther slipped into a nullah before I could 

 get a shot. An old Korkoo shikari told me he had seen a panther catch a 

 monkey in a tree, the panther holding on to the branches by one fore paw as 

 he did so, and then hauling the monkey up. 



The monkeys which had attracted my attention to the panther, left off 

 swearing when I came up and went quietly away. 



2. While walking down the bank of a stream one evening looking for 

 tiger pugs I noticed the smell of a dead animal close to me. Following 

 up the smell I came on a tiger cub which had apparently been dead three or 

 four days. It seemed to be about five months old. The body was hidden in long 

 grass and covered with loose grass which looked as if it had been cut with a 

 sharp implement. I then wandered down the stream, and within about sixty 

 yards came on the perfectly fresh marks of a tigress (by the pugs) ; she had 

 apparently only moved off while we were looking at the dead cub. The tracks 

 were still wet where she had gone out of the stream. The bodv of the cub 

 was too decomposed to see if it had been injured. 



3. Some four miles from the place referred to above, I came on a regular 

 tiger lair with the hair of a black bear spread all over the place. The bear 

 had evidently found a meal for a tiger or tigers. 



4. A large tigress and cubs lived near this place at the time of my visit. I 

 tied up for them, and had a buffalo killed one night. On our way to the kill early 

 next morning we tracked the tigress on a jungle road for a long way, then 

 lost the tracks for a hundred yards or so and came on them again. Looking 

 round where the tracks left the road we saw a large stag sambhur (in velvet) 

 lying dead under a mhowra tree, and evidently freshly killed. The tigress had 

 apparently seen the sambhur from the road feeding on the fallen herries, had 

 turned off to kill him and then gone on without eating any of the flesh. Pro- 

 bably she had previously killed my bu£alo. There were several marks on (me 

 hind leg about the hock where she had apparently first caught the sambhur with 

 teeth and claws but the leg was not broken ; there were also the usual teeth 

 marks on the neck. The tigress was a large one, she measured eight feet nine 

 inches round the curves and sixteen inches round the forearm. This may 

 prove of interest in connection with the notes lrom Burma on tigt rs ham- 

 stringing their prey before killing which appeared in the last volume of the 

 Society's Journal. 



5. 1 came across a panther one evening, but could not get a shot. We tied 

 up a buffalo that night and he killed it. I had intended sitting up for him 

 behind a screen of bushes and grass, but circumstances prevented me. The 

 night I should have sat up, a large male tiger carried off the panthers kill 



