168 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



as the others. I immediately fired at it, and it ran down the hill making the 

 usual noise. I then saw about fifty yards down the hill bear No. 2, which 

 I had not fired at, looking in the direction of bear No. 1 which was lying 

 motionless. It quickly returned to No. 1, touched it with its paw and started 

 off again down the hill, but stopped when it had gone a short distance and 

 partially turned round. I then shot it. Bear No. 3, when I first saw it, 

 seemed to be looking at me with astonishment or bewilderment. No. 2 

 lost its life by trying to save No. 1, which it apparently thought had sat 

 down for some reason and could not make out why it did not run away. 

 These were again a female and two nearly full-grown cubs. I am sorry I 

 did not at the time think of ascertaining whether bear No. 2, which returned 

 to try and save No. 1, was the mother or one of the cubs. 



The sloth bear is a powerful animal, and this may well be observed by 

 looking at the carcase of a full-grown specimen after the skin has been 

 removed. It does not, however, appear to be a very dangerous beast to 

 encounter out shooting, and the death or severe mauling of a European 

 sportsman by one is not often reported. It is also probably not so vicious 

 as a tiger or panther, although exceptions to this rule may occasionally be 

 met with ; nor does it appear to be in the habit of laying in wait for its 

 assailant after being wounded. I can report two cases of cowardice : one 

 was a big male who charged down hill from a distance of nearly one hundred 

 yards on receiving a very slight wound, but, on being severely wounded, when 

 about eight yards off, turned and did his utmost to crawl away. Another 

 was a female which was induced to leave her cave where she had a small 

 cub and was wounded while running away. The cub was caught, and the 

 wounded mother was immediately tracked up. We came upon her fre- 

 quently at distances of from twenty to forty yards, but she made no attempt 

 to charge, although I did my utmost to incite her to do so by causing the 

 cub, which was being carried close to me, to cry out. A female will fre- 

 quently carry a young one on her back, but in this case the cub was too 

 young to be able to cling to its mother's back. 



Bombay, May, 1897. F. J. A. HILL. 



No. XXT.— LATE STAY OF WILD FOWL. 



It may be of interest to Naturalists to know that on the 6th instant I saw 



a solitary male Shoveler duck on a big tank near.Bhuj, and on the same day, 



at Devisar, 11 miles north of this, my shikari, Ookha Bheel, saw 20 Shovelers 



(males and females) and seven Blue-winged teal. Is it not extraordinarily late 



for the northern ducks to be still with us ? To-day Captain Whyte and I saw 



two Avocets (Avocetta recurvirostra) near the above-mentioned piece of water, 



and up to the 17th of last month the Black-tailed godwit (Limosa cegocephala) 



was here in great numbers. 



C. D. LESTER, Lieutenant, 



Bhuj, Cutch, 9th May, 1897. 17th Bombay Infantry. 



