MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 189 



to the killing of this animal and the long time it lived after being shot 

 has already appeared in the Indian Field. All we need now say is that 

 the animal was fired at by Mr. Clifford Batten, while sitting over a kill near 

 Mussoorie, at 8 o'clock on Monday night and the last time she was heard 

 alive was 4 o'clock on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday morning the 

 tigress was found lying dead over half a mile from the place she was 

 fired at. To quote Mr. Clift'ord Batten : — " She was struck with a 500 solid 

 bullet (400 grains, 55 grains cordite, low velocity), this passed through her 

 arm breaking the humerus causing a compound fracture, entered her 

 head above the left eye and passed through the brain, and ultimately came 

 out of skin on the right side of the neck. 



The bullet entered the front part of the left half of the brain, passed 

 obliquely through and broke off the right mastoid process, the nasal por- 

 tions of the skull were not touched, but the parietal bones were broken into 

 four pieces ; in fact, the whole of the cavity containing the brain was 

 smashed and what was left of the brain was a pulp. Still with these fright- 

 ful injuries she was, to my certain knowledge, alive eight hours, then (not 

 taking into consideration the compound fracture of her left foreleg) 

 was afterwards able to travel half a mile. Surely this is a record of 

 vitality." 



Editoks. 



No. III.— NUMBER OF CAUDAL VERTEBRA IN PANTHERS 

 (FELIS PARDUS) TAIL. 



On page 1319 of Vol. XXI I notice Captain Mosse has shot a small 

 panther with 24 bones in the tail. On the 22nd of December I shot a 

 small female panther measuring 5'-6" at Bhatkal in North Canara. The 

 number of her caudal vertebree was 23. It was a full grown panther. 



W. W. KEYS, Ma.joe, i.m.s. 

 Karwae, December 1912. 



No. IV.— A FIGHT BETWEEN A JACKAL [GANIS INDICUS) 

 AND AN IMPERIAL EAGLE {AQUILA HELIACA). 



An encounter between a jackal and an Imperial eagle Aquilaheliaca, which 

 I had the good fortune to witness some days ago while riding across the 

 Samilzai plain, Hangu Valley, may perhaps be of interest to record. As I 

 rode up, the e?-gle was on an open flat piece of ground defending itself 

 vigorously with beak and tallons against the assaults of a jackal which was 

 ■circling rapidly round it, first one way then the other, snapping at its 

 neck the while but evidently fearing to put itself within reach of the 

 powerful tallons. 



Thinking the eagle must be injured, I rode up closer whereupon the 

 jackal made off, but the eagle, after running and flapping along the ground, 

 soared into the air and showed that it was (juite unhurt. What the end of 

 this unnsual combat would have been had no one appeared on the scene is 

 hard to say. But the odds seemed in favour of jackal. The eagle, Avhich 

 must have been surprised and rushed by the jackal before it could take 

 to flight, was obviously pinned to its ground by the superior mobility of its 

 assailant. For, if for an instant it had abandoned facing its adversary, 

 which it would necessarily have had to do in order to get on the wing, 

 its seizure and discomfiture were a quick certainly. In all probaToility the 



