288 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
‘with vultures on the carcase of a gaur I had killed the day before in the Melghat 
Forest, south of the Tapti River, latitude 21 40’N. I also found and shot 
a very large bear (Melursus ursinus or labiatus) in suspicious proximity to the 
carcase of the gaur, but did not see any signs of his having fed on it. His 
presence was revealed by the swearing of monkeys of the langur species, which 
are usually supposed to confine their bad language to objurgations directed at 
the felines—tigers and panthers. 
During the same expedition I found, written in the book of nature in the 
plainest language, the history of a herd of gaur which had been stampeded by a 
tiger, which had killed a cow. There were the tiger’s tracks plainly imprinted 
where the ground, now dry, had been soft with rain, and the hoof marks of the 
bison as they had thundered off in terror, leaving the unhappy cow to her fate. 
Nothing but the bones remained, and even the horns had gone, presumably. 
gnawed off by porcupines. The tiger had also killed a vulture whose foul 
feathers and bones lay near the remains of the kill. Generally vultures will 
remain perched in the trees above when the tiger is at hand, but this one had 
evidently been tempted by greed and, venturing too near, had been destroyed 
with a stroke of the mighty paw. 
There were several other interesting and unusual incidents during this ex- 
pedition, although it lasted only ten days. I was moving camp and started 
some hours before daybreak one morning, in bright moonlight. I was riding a 
small pony on a narrow jungle path, accompanied by gun-bearers and other 
men, when there was a rustling among the dry leaves by the roadside and a 
bear rushed out at us into the moonlight, giving vent to gruff roars and growls. 
However, the bear fortunately did not charge home, but turned tail and bolted 
before I had time to get hold of my rifle. A few hours later, after sunrise, 
we emerged into the main forest road, and came up with my servants and camp 
equipage on two bullock carts. I was riding behind the carts when I saw a 
panther sit up on its haunches under a tree by the roadside, about eighty yards 
off. It did not seem alarmed, and I jumped off my pony and shot it through 
the head. I saw in the jungle the same day a small animal which I recognised 
as a lesser civet cat, the only one of the species I have seen. The same day 
I saw two Rattels M. indica ; I had previously seen one in another part of the 
same forest swimming about in a pool of water in the middle of the night. 
The panther I killed had a mate which visited my camp that night ; I tied up 
a goat near the well, hoping to get a shot, but the goat, perhaps frightened by 
the panther, jumped into the well and hanged itself. A bear came into the 
camp the same night. I ran after it, barefooted, but it plunged into the 
shades of the forest, and I did not get a shot. I was shown, when out on this 
occasion, the head of a fine old bull gaur that had been killed by a tiger. The 
aborigines said that it had put up a great fight, and perhaps this accounted for 
the condition of a tiger shot by an officer of the Royal Artillery in this locality 
not long afterwards. For this tiger had one eye gouged out, evidently in an 
encounter with some other wild beast. 
R. G. BURTON, 
30th May 1921. BRIGADIER-GENERAL, 
No, XXVII.—MANIPURI NAMES OF CERTAIN BIRDS. 
In referring to text books on game and other birds, I have always noticed 
how inaccurate are the Manipuri names given therein. I enclose a list of the 
Manipuri names of certain birds which, if you think it worth publishing in the 
Journal, may be of use to future writers of text books. The names were collect- 
ed mostly fron’ shikaris and beaters, during my nine years’ stay in the Manipur 
