442 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VII1. 
horns were good, they were rubbed to a certain extent, and it seems certain 
that the horns are at their best directly the velvet comes off ; this date 1 
should fix at the end of December or early in January. 
I do not know if the stag “ bells” or makes any other sound during the 
rutting season. I have never heard one, but the other morning I came on some 
Thamin before daylight, and they made a sharp clucking noise not unlike 
a pea-hen, 
CHARLES F. GILBERT, M.1.¢.z. 
lst December, 1893. 
No. XI—A BRAVE WOMAN AND A COWARDLY TIGER. 
The following account of a woman’s encounter with a tiger may interest 
some readers of the Journal. The scene of the adventure was a jungle at 
Deust, a village at the foot of the Amboli Ghat. At about 5 P.M. on the 
7th July last,a young Mahrata woman named Parvatti was tending some 
cattle, when suddenly a tiger made his appearance with the intention of mak- 
ing his supper off one of the bullocks, as he had done more than once before 
under similar circumstances. The woman, however, not wishing to lose one 
of her precious cattle, very pluckily placed herself between it and the tiger ; 
upon which the animal, resenting such interference, walked slowly forward 
and seized the poor woman by the left shoulder, and crunched the upper part 
of the arm bone into bits. Notwithstanding this, the brave woman gave the 
animal several blows on the head with a bamboo she had in her right hand 
which had the effect of making him let go; he then retired into the jungle 
to seek his supper elsewhere, leaving the herd unmolested. The poor woman 
was removed the next day to the nearest hospital, where she had to undergo 
an amputation at the shoulder joint. She suffered a great deal from blood- 
poisoning, but was quite well after two months. Asa reward for her great 
pluck, and im consideration of her long and painful suffering, the State 
authorities gave her a present of Rs. 50. The story, as related by the poor 
and unsophisticated woman, bears every evidence of truth. 
D. G. DALGADO, mp. 
SAVANTVADI, 4th December, 1893. 
No. XII.—ODD NOTES. 
Has any one noticed how late the spotted-bill duck breeds? No doubt it is 
recorded somewhere. I have now more than once shot their flappers as late 
as the end of December ; in the N.-W. P. and in Mysore I have come across 
them several times in November. 
Quite recently, when on the march, I saw a harrier (I failed to identify him) 
stoop on a quail who had just settled in a tussock of long grass. He missed 
