MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 835 



convinced to the contrary and said that they had made more row when he had 

 caught the bull, but the bear would not budge and charged when they got 

 near. Subsequent events proved him right and the bear an uncommonly nasty 

 customer. We eventually got into a dense scrub jungle where it was impossible 

 to see more than a couple of yards ahead and crawled along on hands and knees. 

 I took 2 men with me and aho had 2 dogs, a setter and a spaniel, on the chain 

 behind. After we had gone about 20 yards I heard the well-known half 

 snuffle or half grunt of an angered or frightened bear. Both my companions 

 did record time back the way they had come and not liking the idea of a 

 charge in such a place I followed suit, going backwards with both triggers full 

 cock. I then decided to take the setter in with me as he had accompanied me 

 on many bear shoots and leave the bipeds behind. I kept the dog to " heel " 

 till I got to the place whence I had heard the bear and then sent him in. He 

 went in all his hair on end and growling, but had not gone two yards when back 

 he came and the bear after him. However I was ready for him and dropped 

 him almost at my feet with a bullet in the head. He was a huge beast in his 

 prime and in perfect condition and coat. The villagers soon arrived and 

 hunted about for the kill which was finally discovered in the fork of a dry oak 

 about 8 ft. off the ground. Why he should have taken the trouble to drag the 

 bullock, the ordinary sized rat one sees in the h lis, up the tree when there was 

 such good cover down below, I cannot think. I have shot several bears on kills 

 and have found they usually eat the entire animal when they have killed 

 it and do not attempt to drag it at all. I never heard of one taking his 

 dinner into a tree before or since and it would be interesting to hear if any 

 other sportsman has seen or heard of a similar occurrence. 



Bhadarwa, Kashmir, 12th October 1906. C. H. DONALD. 



No. XXII.— A PANTHER PLACING ITS KILL UP A TEEE. 



In reply to a letter in the Journal of September 20th regarding a 

 panther placing its kill up a tree, I came across a similar case about five years 

 ago of a panther taking a G-yi (barking deer) on to a tree. The tree was, I 

 think, a Tamarind, short bole and big fork, growing on the bank of a stream 

 over which it was leaning. I was walking up the bed of the stream and passed 

 right underneath without noticing it, and the men behind shouted tome. I 

 turned round in time to see the panther disappearing. The kill was quite 

 fresh, and the panther was evidently still at his meal on the fork of the tree 

 when I passed underneath. The height above the bank must have been about 

 eight or nine feet, but not perpendicular as in the case under reply, and the 

 distance above my head was about four feet more. 



Kindat, Upper Burma, 31st October 1906. L. V. BAGSHAWE. 



No. XXIII.— DO BATS CAPTURE AND EAT BIRDS ? 



It is a common morning occurrence to find, on the floors of verandahs, un- 

 ceilinged rooms and out-houses, the remains of small birds (principally Zosterops, 



