MISCELLANEOUS NOTES, 533 



panther must have died inside the cave, and no other panther has cared to 

 take up quarters so uncanny, I may add that I have not since used a "450 

 hollow bullet for big game. Had the above been solid, it would have entered 

 the heart after breaking the leg at the elbow. The gazelles stood switching 

 their tails, gazing at the panther, and did not see me till I fired. 



K. H. HEATH, 



Beawar, April, 1896, 



One day, while I was out with my rifle in Kathiawar, I came across some 

 wolves, and taking a shot at one of them, my bullet broke a hind leg high up. 

 This wolf remained in some long grass, while the others made off, 

 I approached the wounded animal to put it out of pain, when it got up and 

 tried to follow its retreating companions. The broken leg swinging by the 

 skin impeded its flight and made it very angry. Turning round and round 

 as if in search of the cause of its disability, the wolf at length seized the 

 injured leg with its teeth and giving a sharp wrench or two, tore it ofE. It 

 than ran away as fast as it could on three legs, holding the detached limb in 

 its mouth. I was so interested in this, that I did not fire again but remained 

 watching the retreating animal through my field glasses. As far as my sight 

 followed, the leg was retained in the mouth. I then followed in the direction 

 taken by the wolf, but never found it again. 



This story has sometimes excited suspicion, but I think there was nothing 

 extraordinary in the biting off of the leg, I believe that foxes and rats will 

 bite through the leg in order to escape from a gin trap. The carrying of the 

 leg in the mouth was probably mere nervousness. I think that the wolf did 

 not so much remember to carry the leg as it forgot to drop it. 



F. H. JACKSON, Colonel. 

 Palanpoee, 3r^ May, 1896. 



No. IV.— ON THE OCCURKENCE OF HALcYON PILE AT A 

 (THE BLACK-CAPPED KINGFISHER) NEAR BOMBAY. 



In case Mr. J. Brand's contribution of a live specimen of Halcyorn pileata^ 

 the Black-capped Kingfisher, noted in the last number of the Journal, 

 vol. X, p. 337, may escape notice, I think it is well to call attention to the 

 occurrence of this Malayan and Chinese species so near Bombay as Kalyan. 

 This is particularly interesting from the fact that it has only once been 

 recorded from Western India before, viz., by Mr. Vidal, in his paper on the 

 " Birds of the South Konkan," published in the ninth volume of " Stray 

 Feathers," p, 49, in which he notes having obtained two specimens at Malvan 

 in January, 1880. 



The distribution of this handsome kingfisher extends throughout the 

 Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, Siam, North Borneo and China as far as 



