MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 215 



the length of the tail. For instance, Jerdon records a panther measuring head 

 and body 4'-9" with a tail of S'-2" and in Shooting in Cooch Behar one is men- 

 tioned with head and body of 4' 9" and a tail of 2' $%". Surely from these 

 measurements a far better idea is got of the sizes of these panthers than 

 if they had been given as measuring 7'-ll" and 7'-6J" respectively in total 

 length. 



Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. N. B. KINNEAR, 



6, Apollo Street, Keeper of the Museum. 



Bombay, April 1910. 



No. V. -JACKAL HUNTING WITH WILD DOGS. 



During March last my two shikaries while proceeding to tie up a goat 

 as a " kill " for panther met a small pack of wild dogs on the high road. I 

 had warned them to be on the look-out for the pack and take a gun with them. 

 The dogs sneaked into the jungle as soon as they saw the men, and the latter 

 tied up the goat at the side of the road and climbed on to a large boulder out 

 of sight As soon as the goat began to bleat, the pack came up and the men 

 shot this animal (skin and skull sent) as it was about to attack the goat with 

 another. They also wounded another one which came out on to the road 

 about 40 yards down to have a look at the goat ; they describe the last one as 

 very red and big. It got away. I send you this skin and skull, because I think 

 that the animal is a jackal. I have questioned the men closely, and they say 

 there was a great variety of colouring in the 7 or 8 animals they saw. Some 

 were quite red, unmistakably wild dogs, one was " bilkul kala." After they 

 had broken up the pack by firing these two shots, they said the wild dogs were 

 calling in the jungle in different directions. As they have been with me 

 when I have shot wild dogs and seen and heard me decoy them into the open 

 by imitating their whistling call, I have no doubt about their knowledge of 

 the dogs' call. 



I have seen some of the same pack of wild dogs running in the very same 

 spot a few months ago. They invariably drop excreta there ; and on this 

 occasion it showed that they had recently killed and eaten a sambhur. The 

 jackal killed was very full, but I did not unfortunately examine the contents 

 of its stomach. 



I do not doubt the following facts : — 



1. The animal was a member of a pack of which some were wild dogs. 



2. It came out to attack the goat with another animal. 



It is so long since I have seen a jackal at close quarters that I cannot iden- 

 tify it ; but it appears to me to be rather too rufous in places for a jackal and 

 not sufficiently rufous in the general colouring of the body for a wild dog ? 

 The mask is too " foxy" for a wild dog. The brush is also too " foxy" along 

 the entire length. 



