MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 159 



something, and the other was standing in advance ; as I moved on a little, 

 the leopard looked towards me, then quickly turned about moving in the 

 direction of the pig, and was at once charged by the large one in front. As this 

 pig came on with a rush, the leopard bounded high in the air to avoid the 

 charge, and appeared to me to alight on a tree; the pig then returned towards 

 its companions, I went on towards the tree, thinking I should be able to 

 get a shot at the leopard, but on getting near could not see it ; the shikari 

 told me afterwards that the leopard merely jumped on to and down from 

 the tree and made off through the grass. As I stood looking about, the pig 

 trotted slowly away, and all the deer entered the wood in front of which 

 they had been moving. I then went on a short way beyond the tree into 

 which I saw the leopard sprung, and I noticed oa the ground the body of a 

 doe chital, I went up and examined it, and it appeared to have been killed 

 some time previously by the leopard ; there were fang wounds on the neck, 

 part of a hind quarter and a good deal of the inside had been eaten ; the 

 pig also had evidently been feeding on it ; their foot-marks were close all 

 round, and the place I found the body was about the same spot where I 

 had previously seen two of the pigs rooting. I am under the impression that 

 after the leopard had killed and eaten a small portion of the chital, the 

 three pigs had come up and that they then drove him off the kill, and in 

 consequence of this misfortune he was trying to catch another deer, when 

 I appeared on the scene. I covered the remains of the chital with branches 

 to protect it from vultures, and in the evening brought my ladder and sat 

 over it till it got quite dusk, with the hope the leopard might return, but 

 nothing came, and as the moon did not rise till late, I returned to camp. Next 

 morning I sent a man to the place, and he reported that the leopard had 

 returned during the night and that nearly everything was eaten up. I ex- 

 pressed my surprise to the shikari at the herd of chital remaining so long near 

 the leopard, especially after one had been caught and killed; he replied that the 

 deer always act in this manner, and do not appear to mind if one is caught. 

 The leopard appeared to be of the large variety, and, so far as I could see, 

 the pig which charged was a boar. 



G. S. RODON, Major. 

 Dharwae, 24th February 1897. 



No. YIII— NIDIFICATION OF THE THICK-BILLED FLOWER- 

 PECKER (PIPRISOMA AGILE). 

 It may be of interest to ornithologists to learn that the nest and eggs of the 

 above bird, about which not very much is known, owing to its shy and 

 retiring habits, has been found by me at Baroda, and this is not the first 

 instance of its occurrence, as Mr. H. Littledale has found it breeding here 

 before. He has asked me to bring the fact to notice, so as to confirm his observ- 

 ations. I had noticed these little birds flitting about parasites growing on a 

 custard-apple tree, in very close proximity to my verandah, yet it never struck 



