MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 107 



No. XII.—EUPODOTIS EDWARDSII. 



When out coursing on the 5th June I came across a fine specimen of this 

 bird on an extensive maidan near some low sandy hillocks ; only about 12 

 miles from Gurmukhtesar on the Ganges. As this is the first I have seen 

 or heard of in a seven years' residence in Babugarh, their occurrence in the 

 Meerut District must be rare enough to be worth recording, Jerdon says i 

 " I have not heard of its occurring anywhere in the valley of the Ganges." 



Some four years ago I came on two houbara (Boubara Macqueenii) near 

 here. 



Florican visit us in small numbers during the rains and cold weather ; two 

 flocks of the large sand grouse {Ptrocles. Arenarius) also come in during the 

 winter. One haunts the plain on the Gurmukhtesar road, the other a maidan 

 between the two little naddis on which the Civil Veterinary Department Dep6t 

 is situated. 



G, M. RAYMENT, 



Babugarh, 6th June, 1894.- Veterinary Major, 



No. XIII.— A PANTHER SMOKED TO DEATH IN A CAVE. 



In May last I was out shikarring for a few days and had khubber of a panther 

 marked down in thick jungle. I had a beat, but nothing appeared. The man 

 said the panther must have gone into a cave in this jungle, and, accordingly, for 

 about one hour they tried to smoke the beast out of this cave, but without avail. 

 Next day a man reported to me that a panther's pugs had been seen to come 

 out of the cave, but on the morning of the second day another man came to say 

 there was a great smell coming from it, and he thought the panther must 

 have been smoked to death. I accordingly sent off some men and they 

 brought back to me the body of a fine male panther which they had with 

 considerable difficulty dragged out of the cave. As the panther had been 

 dead at least 36 hours and stank badly, his skin was useless. Next day I went 

 to examine the cave. I found it was in a nullah under some very 

 massive rocks. There were 4 if not 5 entrances ; none of them very large, and 

 in only one of them could a man crawl. Two of the entrances were about 8 feet 

 higher than the others. I do not think any passage in the cave could have 

 been longer than 20 feet, but as the entrances were so small, I could not 

 possibly examine the place. At the two upper entrances the men had lit fires, 

 and at one of the lower entrances they had made another small fire, but it was 

 put out at once, so as to allow the panther to escape through this entrance. It 

 was near this latter entrance the dead panther was found. One of the men said 

 he heard a panther growl when he lit the fire, but my shikari listened and hear- 

 ing no sound disbelieved the man. I cannot understand why this panther was 

 so foolish as to stay and be smoked to death, and thinking the incident may 

 be worthy of record, I beg to submit it for our Journal. 



Bombay, 8th June, 1894. REGINALD GILBERT, 



