8i8 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 

 No. 1.— hy^*:na driving panther away from its kill. 



As the following account of a hysena appropriating the ' kill ' of a panther 

 and keeping the panther off it too, sent me by an old and experienced 

 shikari may be of interest, I send the narrator's own account of the 

 occurrence. " A panther killed my tie-up and would you believe it, a hycena 

 turned up and kept the panther off ; whom I could see sitting a long way 

 off and waiting. He tried to sneak up now and again, but the hyeena used 

 to drive him off. I lost the panther as I let many chances go of a good shot 

 at him simply through looking on at the fun. Eventually I wounded him 

 very badly but did not get him. He was a very big brute and I was very 

 amused at him fearing a wretched hysena. There was a tiger there, but I 

 never got a chance at him." On this, thinking he might have been deceived 

 by the light in mistaking the tiger for the hysBua, I wrote and asked him. 

 His reply is quoted, " I write to dispel the suspicion you seem to have 

 that a hytena could drive a leopard off a kill. There is not the shadow of a 

 doubt in my mind. It was full moon and the kill was on a spot as bare as 

 the palm of my hand and not more than 10 yards from my machan. The 

 hyeena turned up first and walked round and round the kill, at times within 

 ;5 yards of the machan. He kept growling or rather whining and looking in 

 one direction where there were a lot of bushes. I could see his very 

 stripes, in fact, almost as well as in daylight. After a time he started at 

 the ' kill ' but only took a bite or two and then used to march oft' towards 

 this clump of bushes and holding his head up, sort of half barked and half 

 moaned. The shikari with me was very amused and thought the brute was 

 in a funk of the panther turning up. After a few more bites he again took 

 a few strides towards those bushes but in a more determined manner, then 

 the shikari pointed out the panther sitting at the edge of the clearing and 

 looking on. The hysena was fully half an hour at the kill, whilst the 

 panther could be plainly seen sitting on the one spot. The old hyeena 

 did not worry much ; kept on having a few bites and walking towards the 

 leopard, growling at him. He never went close up. Then the hyjena got a 

 tremendous junk out of the inside of the kill in his mouth and walked oft'. 

 No sooner the leopard saw this than he came trotting up to the kill. The 

 hysena promptly dropped his Junk of meat and came running back. The 

 panther was then right on the kill and seemed inclined to dispute it, but when 

 the hysena walked up to within a couple of yards of him, he bounded oft" and 

 sat down some way off". The hysena started at the kill again and it was at 

 this moment I plugged at the leopard. He rolled about and growled but 

 picking himself up disappeared. The hyajna was not much frightened and 

 simply trotted oft". Ten minutes later he was round again quite unconcerned 

 and 1 am ashamed to say I plugged and missed him. 



The shikari with me said he knows of cases where leopards have given 

 way to hyrenas. It has always been puzzling to me why I have never come 

 across a hysena killed by a panther. In Bundelkhand, hysenas infest the 

 places where panthers are common and if the panther did not fear a hysena, 

 I am sure the latter would easily have been exterminated by now. There 

 is no mistaking a tiger for a hysena which has such a distinctive shape and 

 walk, besides as I tell you it was like daylight and the kill was right under 

 my tree and this bea^t was there over half an hour. 



