1022 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV 11. 



told the boy, who was holding a light, to see if it was not a bird that the bat 

 had dropped ; it was, the remains being quite warm and bleeding. 

 I think this conclusive evidence and perhaps worth recording. 



A. M. PRIMROSE. 

 Tamarhat P.O., Gauripur, Assam. 



\2th November 1906. 

 (The above confirm? Mr. GreeD's note in the last number of our Journal and 

 was written quite independently before its publication. — Eds.) 



No. XV.— BATS FEEDING ON BIRDS. 



Referring to Mr. Ernest Green's query on p. 835, Vol. XVII of this Journal, 

 there is no doubt whatever that Megaderma lyra habitually feeds on birds and 

 mice. These verminiferous vermin (the bats) used to annoy me greatly by 

 catching mice about my house, and fetching birds out of their comfortable 

 nests in the night and chewing them up in the corners of rooms or verandahs. 

 We are spared the use of our inductive and deductive faculties ("which would 

 perfectly suffice) by the simple fact that I have seen them do it many times. The 

 well known zoologist, Mr. F. Finn, was living with me at that time. We caught 

 and caged the bats and he fed them on small birds brought for sale by natives. 

 The hanging bat watched his time, made a grab, had the bird by the back of the 

 neck and killed it instantly. No chase or excitement, simply a swoop or even a 

 grab with the wings when the bird passed close enough. Having got the bird 

 by the neck close behind the head, the hanging bat made a clean job of it in 

 wonderful fashion. He started by chewing the neck in two and dropping the 

 head as neatly as any one could with two hands and a knife and fork. Never 

 by any chance did he drop the body though the wings were not used for hold- 

 ing it. Wings were occasionally used for turning the body round by a mere 

 touch but never for supporting it. He chewed steadily along to the feet 

 and tail, which dropped in their turn with the same matter-of-course facility^ 



F. GLEADOW. 

 Camp Bandra, Salsette', 

 lOth March 1907. 



No. XVI— CURIOUS BEHAVIOUR OF A PANTHER IN 

 CONNECTION WITH A KILL. 



I read with much interest an article by Mr. Comber in a recent number of 

 our Society's Journal (page 517 of this volume) regarding the curious beha- 

 viour of a panther in relation to a kill, and have had the good fortune myself to 

 witness a more or less similar incident which, from a sportsman's point of view, 

 is not only interesting, but important, and shows most remarkable sagacity. 



The scene of the incident I am about to relate was a forest, into which large 

 numbers of wild cattle had been driven and enclosed for purposes of breeding 

 and preventing them from roaming about the country damaging crops. In 

 certain parts of this forest huchhw wells had been dug, and drinking troughs 

 erected for these animals in the hot months ; at these spots large numbers of 



