MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. LI 49 



No. IV.— SAMBUR AND TIGER. 



A short account of the behaviour of a sambur doe whilst I was waiting 

 for tiger the other day may be of interest. 



When some men went out to bring in one of my tied-up buffaloes about 

 7 a. m. they were unable to approach on account of tigers growling ; the 

 buffalo had not then been touched but when I arrived at 8 a. m. the buffalo 

 had been killed and partly eaten. I sat over it from 1p.m. Soon after 

 that hour, I heard roars every fifteen or twenty minutes and the sharp 

 clarion call of a sambur hind sounding from almost exactly the place from 

 which the roars and other noises made by the tigers were coming. 



The doe or hind stuck gamely and continuously to her enemies and 

 never once appeared to leave them all the long afternoon, frequently 

 uttering her bugle-like note of alarm. I could trace the gradual advance 

 of the tigers towards the kill, till at last the doe's bell sounded quite close 

 and almost immediately two fine tigers stepped into view. I killed one 

 with a shot through the heart and the other disappeared. The doe 

 however continued calling loudly for some time notwithstanding the shot 

 fired so close to her. Had she a fawn near ? 



Why did the tigers not molest her ? 



H. W. SETON-KARR. 

 November 1910. 



No. V.— FOOD OF SAMBUR. 



Last September I was out Pykara way — that is west of Ooty — I was 

 much interested in noting that the sambur had eaten, and in larga 

 quantities, the common Nilgiri nettle — Girandinia teterophy, etc. This 

 nettle has large species on the leaves and ordinary clothes are no protec- 

 tion when working through it. The irritation lasts for some time and is 

 very painful. It seems strange food for an animal and this in the wet 

 weather or here there is any quantity of food of all sorts in the jungles and 

 on the hill-sides. There is no mistake about the sambur having eaten 

 this plant, the ground all round the plants was trodden down, and the 

 foot marks were quite distinct. I drew the attention of two friends who 

 were with me at the time to this, and though both of them have been in 

 this part for many years (i.e., in Pykara) and are most observant, this is 

 the first occasion on which they have seen the nettle eaten by sambur, or 

 any animal. 



OHAS. GRAY. 



Orchard Dene, 

 Coonoor, November 8th, 1910. 

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