564 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIIL 



No. XV.— HOENS AND SKULL MEASUREMENTS, &c. 



I agree with Mr. Gilbert's remarks in your latest number of the journal that 

 it would be of great assistance if some of our members, who must be acquainted 

 with the Brow-Antlered Deer, would give us the benefit of some additional 

 notes on the subject. In reckoning the points on the heads of stags, it was the 

 custom, I believe, to count as a point anything On which a powder flask could 

 be hung. If Mr. Gilbert bears this in mind, I do not think he will find any 

 difficulty in determining the points of a " Thamin's " head any more than 

 of the heads of its consin, the Swamp Deer (Cervus duvauceli). The 

 Thamin's head, with the exception of the peculiar direction of the Brow Antler, 

 is not unlike the head of the Swamp Deer — that is, they generally have a small 

 point on each brow antler and four or five " on top." The beam at the top, 

 where it gives out a number of points, is sometimes thickened, as in the Swamp 

 Deer, but I think the horns are never palmated as is the case with the Fallow 

 Deer (Cervus dema) found in Persia. As regards the last paragraph but one in 

 Mr. Gilbert's paper, I may mention that all the measurements quoted were 

 carefully made by myself. 



With regard to Mr. Millard's article on Tigers' Skulls, there is or was in the 

 collection of the Society the skull of a tiger presented by Mr. Shillingf ord, 

 the measurements of which are precisely the same as Mr. Rowland Ward's, viz., 

 14|"xl0". Mr. Cecil Gray in 1888 shot a tiger, I believe, over 10 feet; the 

 skull measurements were 13i|" X 9 T V : for comparison I will put one of my 

 own (a good-sized male 9' 5") 13|"x9|", and I think we may safely conclude 

 that a skull over 14" must have belonged to an animal longer than 10 feet. 



The other day I was out stalking not far from here amongst some rocks. I 

 came across a Muntjac (Rib-faced Deer) quite freshly killed by a panther ; its 

 head and f orequarters were mostly eaten, but what struck me as most singular 

 was that the hairs on the rest of the body had been licked clean off with his 

 tongue, just as if a razor had been used. It was quite easy to see where each 

 sweep of the tongue had gone, and there on the ground were the hairs exactly 

 as he had put them off his tongue. This was new to me, for I never knew a 

 panther or tiger ever to take any trouble about hair on an animal, certainly 

 they do not seem to usually, in the case of a calf or buffalo ; but I suppose 

 the long and somewhat erect hair was too much for this gentleman's palate. I 

 picked up the other day a fine Swamp Deer's head ; it has only ten points, but 

 it is a good head. It had lain in the jungle some years, and 1 was going to send 

 it to the collection in Bombay as an instance of deer eating their horns, for to 

 my eye the chisel-shaped marks of the teeth are conclusive. In the jungle, 

 however, I met an old friend (of about thirty years' shikar experience) and he 

 pooh-poohed it, saying " Oh, rats and squirrels, even our prickly friend 

 Hystrix leucura.'" It was a shock, but it was only too true ; the teeth-marks 

 bear a great resemblance to those of rodents, 



W. ST. JOHN EICHAKDSON, Captain, 



Topla, 23rd March, 1894. 



