MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 531 



discovery of their presence to the sense of smell, because they have considered 

 it incredible that the tiger could have seen or heard them. Pome years ago I 

 had the good fortune to procure a young tiger which I reared under the most 

 natural circumstances and which used to run about loose in camp with the dogs. 

 The following experiments were often repeated. His food, say a pig's leg, 

 would be taken away from him and hung up so as to be some 7 feet off the 

 ground, and the tiger led under it and past it he seemed to be quite unaware 

 of its presence. .Again when he had carried off his " joint" to the surrounding 

 grass I have taken him off it and shifted the joint trailing it along the grass. 

 The tiger would return to the exact spot where it had been and then 

 proceed to hunt round in circles for it, he never ran up the scent and what 

 is more signiP cant never attempted to. Wild tigers find a shifted " kill " in 

 exactly the same way if it is out of sight. I consider that these experiments 

 prove that the tiger's sense of smell is less than 1 hat of man, and a tiger has 

 failed to see me under circumstances which had they been reversed would have 

 enabled a man endowed with ordinary powers of smell to discover the tiger. 



Now on considering the above facts in relation to the tiger's character and 

 habits, they are exactly what one would expect to find. He does not use 

 his Sense of smell nor does he require to possess this sense. His eyesight and 

 hearing are of the very first order and it is on these that he depends for his, 

 food entirely. His method of hunting is to prowl about until he hears or 

 sees an animal when he trusts to a stealthy approach and a sudden rrsh ; he 

 never hunts his prey except when accompanied by another tiger and then the 

 hunt is of the nature of a drive when one tiger tries to frighten the deer over 

 his companion already concealed. The fact of his quiet and slow method of 

 questing shows that he depends on his ears and eyes to find and not on his nose. 

 A wild dog, although carnivorous, has a very keen sense of smell, but he 

 regularly hunts his prey by scent, so one naturally expects to find this to be the 

 case. Deer also have a very keen sense of smell, and this is necessary to them 

 for their very existence, as ears and nose are their chief protections against 

 danger and attack. But again these reasons do not apply to the tiger as he has 

 no danger or attack to guard against, and he is not afraid of anything in the 

 forest and does not require to be continually on his guard ; his fear even of 

 man is a very limited fear and in no sense the same sort of fear that exists 

 among deer. 



It would appear, therefore, that the tiger does not require a keen sense of 



smell and that observed facts show that he is endowed with this only to a 



very limited extent. 



A. A.DUNBAR BRANDER, I. F. S. 



Buldana, Berars, May 27th, 1906. 



No. XXV.—THE NESTING OF THE BLACK-CRESTED BAZA 

 {BAZA LOPHOTES). 



The following note on the nesting of Baza lopliotes in the Goma Reserve 

 may be of some interest to readers of our Journal. 

 35 



