526 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I.— AN IRON BAND ON A TIGER'S TOOTH. 



(With a Plate.) 



I send herewith two photographs of the skull of a tiger, shot by me at 



Ekambi in the Kanara District, on the 17th of February, 1880, and which you 



may think of interest, as, in its way, it is, I fancy, quite unique. The tiger 



was a very old male, measuring y ft. 3£ inches ; his skin was very pale and 



faded, which I think as a rule means age, and he was well known in the 



neighbourhood. He was supposed to be under the protection of a village 



temple and to bear a charmed life, as he had been repeatedly fired at by 



different officers, but had always escaped unwounded. On my killing him 



my shikari did a thing which I never saw done before or since. He filled 



his two hands full of the blood, which was pouring from the wound in the 



tiger's neck, and plastered himself all over with it. But all this has nothing 



to do with the interest in the skull which consists in the broad iron band 



round the left upper large canine tooth. The photographs show it very 



distinctly, and you will notice, from the front view of the skull, that the iron 



has eaten its way through the gum and has destroyed a considerable portion 



of the bone of the jaw, so that it must have been on the tooth for a loDg 



time before the tiger was killed. The band does not quite meet round the 



tooth, the open ends being on the inside and compressed into it, and they 



have eaten away some of the ivory. The question is, how this band could 



possibly have got into its present position ? My idea is, that the band formed 



a link in a rough chain round a bullock's neck, and that the tiger in seizing 



the bullock got the tooth through the link and was unable to get rid of it. 



I have never noticed a chain of this kind round a bullock's neck, but there 



might have been an attachment of this sort to the bells they frequently 



wear. 



T. MACPHERSON, 



Lieut.-Col. 

 Beaminster, England. June, 1897. 



No. II.— THE PROTECTIVE POWER OF SCENT IN ANIMALS 

 AND OTHER MATTERS. 



"With the greatest diffidence I venture to offer a few suggestions on this 

 subject, prompted by the desire to offer an answer to the question pro- 

 pounded by Mr. Eardly Wilmott in his g aper read at a recent meeting of the 

 Society. He asks how it is that an animal will not wind a man who is raised 

 a few feet above the ground, and why the most chary of the deer tribe will 

 graze without concern round a tree in which a man is concealed ? The more 



