MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 101 



No. VII.— A TIGER EATING A BEAR. 

 Last April, while taking an afternoon stroll down a lovely road cut through 

 Sal Forest, which had been cleared to a breadth of 200 feet, I observed that 

 one of the numerous bees' nests, at the top of the trees, seemed to possess an 

 unusual amount of vitality, and close inspection convinced me that the 

 disturbance was due to the presence of a bear ; so I sent a man off to my camp 

 for an elephant and a gun. As soon as these arrived, I approached the tree 

 and fired at the bear, whereupon he descended at a pace not conceivable to the 

 uninitiated ; whilst doing so he was badly hit in the body and bled profusely, but 

 he went off through the high grass jungle at a great pace and we lost him. The 

 next morning we took up his trail, which was an easy matter, as the blood spots 

 had not been obliterated, and we found his carcase being devoured by a tiger ! 

 We came on to the scene so suddenly that I was not prepared for a shot and 

 the tiger disappeared into the forest and escaped. 



I have heard of tigers eating their dead companions, but never heard of them 

 appeasing their hunger on bears before. My mahaut, however, told me it was 

 not unusual. 



T. J. CAMPBELL. 



Dhubki, Assam, September, 1893. 



No. VIII.— FOOD OF THE WHITE-EYED BUZZARD. 



I had proof the day before yesterday that hawks feed on land-crabs, a fact 

 that personally I was not before aware of, and which may not be known 

 generally ; so I ■write this for record and to elicit information from others. 



I was strolling along a path by the bank of a jungle stream, and, as I came 

 round the corner, I saw a few yards off a hawk on the ground apparently 

 tearing at something ; on seeing me the bird rose to fly away and I shot it. 

 On picking up the specimen I found that it had one claw of a crab firmly fixed 

 to its beak. Going back to the spot the bird rose from, I could find nothing, 

 but I concluded that it had killed a crab, of course to eat, that the crab had 

 nipped it, and that when I came up it was trying to disentangle itself. I had 

 the bird skinned and send it down to you. It was not till some time after I 

 got home that the claw relaxed and fell off, but I have tied it on as I found it. 



I know that tigers and jackals eat land-crabs, but never knew before that 

 hawks did. 



KENNETH MACKENZIE, Colonel. 

 Chikalda, Berae, 20th April, 1894. 



[The bird sent down by Col. Mackenzie is a young specimen of the White- 

 Eyed Buzzard, Butastur teesa.— -Ed.] 



