164 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XL 



No. XV.— ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF HALCYON PILEATA (THE 

 BLACK-CAPPED KINGFISHER). 



I observe that Mr. Millard obtained that beautiful Kingfisher, Halcyon 

 pileata, at Rewa Danda, and the incident is referred to in our Journal * in 

 terms which seem to imply that such a bird had no business to be there. 

 Mr. Barnes also, in his book, speaks of a specimen shot by Mr. Vidal as 

 " the only recorded instance of its occurrence within our region." The fact 

 is that, though everywhere rare, this bird occurs down the whole coast from 

 Bombay to North Canara at least, and probably to Malabar. I repeatedly 

 saw it in the neighbourhood of Karwar when I was there during the years 

 1889-95, and afterwards Mr. Davidson obtained a specimen fifteen miles 

 further south. Then I met with it at Jaitapur in the Rutnagri district, 

 and quite lately I saw one between Rewa Danda and Alibag, on the sea-shore. 

 I believe I have seen it on several other occasions in different places, when 

 I was not quite so sure of its identity. I have never seen it any distance 

 from the sea-shore, or one of the great creeks, and always perching on high 

 trees, from which it swoops, with the action of a hawk rather than a king- 

 fisher, on the sand crabs, which, I believe are its chief food. I have met with 

 it only in the cold season, so it may not be a permanent resident. It has a 

 loud screaming cry like H. smyrnensis. 



E. H. AITKEN. 

 Ratnagiri, April, 1897. 



No. XVI.— SAVAGERY OF THE INDIAN SLOTH-BEAR. 



In the last number of our Journal Mr. Gilbert speaks of the common 

 black bear as an animal generally inoffensive, which " occasionally takes 

 to man-killing, or man-mauling, for no apparent reason." I should like to 

 know if this is the general experience of shikaris. I have been among 

 black bears only in the jungles of the Canara district, and there I can say 

 that no wild animal has a more evil reputation. I have never had any 

 personal attentions from them, but I have known of numerous instances 

 in which men were mauled by them without the least provocation, and I 

 have found the natives universally holding them in more dread than tigers. 

 If it were not for the fact that bears always, as a rule, return to their dens 

 before sunrise, no Jcunbi in some parts of Canara would go out alone. They 

 have very little fear of meeting an unwounded tiger by daylight, but a bear, 

 they say, is such a sheitan that if it sees a man it must fly at him and try to 

 tear out his eyes. They all agree, however, that if two or three men are 

 together, it will not attack ; so, if they have to go out at night, they go in 

 parties. Some of them also arm themselves with cudgels of a particular tree 

 which has the wonderful property of warding off bears. I was once pre- 

 sented with a goodly bludgeon made of this precious wood and could under- 



* Vide Proceedings of the Meeting held on lGth December 1896, published on page 142 

 of this number. 



