JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



departure to the tank. We consequently decided to divide up, I sitting 

 over the goat and my brother over the water. We took up onr respective 

 positions at precisely 5-30 p.m. It is an excellent plan, I find, in taking up 

 one's position over a goat to accompany a small herd of cattle. The goat 

 is then casually tied up, while the men and cattle depart, making plenty of 

 noise. 



Shortly after the departure of the cattle, both panthers gave vent to 

 spasmodic roaring, and their lair being within 100 yards, the noise they made 

 was distinctly impressive. At 6 p.m. one of the panthers came out on to a 

 rock and, carefully surveying the goat and its surroundings, returned to con- 

 tinue attentions to its mate, which were, to all appearances, much resented. 



By 6-30 p.m. both panthers had gradually worked their way down the 

 boulders of the hill, roaring and snarling at each other, and when 60 yards off 

 were perceived by the goat, who promptly sneezed in the vigorous and charac- 

 teristic manner well known to that quadruped under critical circumstances. 

 It was still daylight, and every now and again I could catch glimpses of both 

 panthers through the green foliage of my" machan " well within shot. The 

 male's attitude appeared to be all attentive, and the female's attitude all re- 

 sentive throughout, and they sat facing each other for quite half an hour. 

 More or less suddenly a compromise seems to have been arrived at, for one 

 panther skulked off to the right, and the other disappeared in a direction 

 invisible to me. Presently footsteps were audible quite close to the machan 

 on the side hidden by leaves, towards the hill, and if I were to venture to 

 make a guess, not only from these footsteps, but from the alarmed manner in 

 which the goat conducted itself at this stage, I should say that one of the 

 panthers was stalking within 20 paces. The sequel will show that tho object 

 of this stalk is a trifle obscure. Up to this point neither of the panthers had 

 made the slightest effort to hide its presence from the goat. They stalked 

 about in a bold and barefaced manner never observed by me before. After 

 an interval of 10 minutes or so, the panther, assumed to be 20 paces off, ap- 

 peared to have departed, for the goat now began to display a general in- 

 difference to its surroundings. The light at this stage was very indifferent, 

 the moon throwing great slanting shadows towards me. At 7 P.M. I heard a 

 rustle of leaves, and the next moment one of the panthers was in mid-air and the 

 goat pinned down. The neatness with which a panther always kills is 

 remarkable, and death must be almost instantaneous. The panther had stalked 

 the goat from the side away from the hill, and that animal like myself must 

 have been absolutely unaware of its close proximity. The goat uttered no sound 

 cind, owing to the presence of a thick shadow, the panther and the goat were 

 practically invisible to me. Considering the circumstance the silence was now 

 profound and was undisturbed for quite a quarter of an hour until an appalling 

 howling and screeching in the hill told me that the second panther was per- 

 ambulating about and bad disturbed a porcupine. The gradual rise of the 



