490 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



Manaar. It is of an extremely shy disposition, and I have never seen it my- 

 self, though I have heard of dead carcases being thrown up on the Pamban 

 beach, and living specimens being caught in the fishing nets. One was, in fact, 

 caught, together with a young one, the day before my arrival at Pamban in 

 1889, and promptly sold for food, as it is considered a great delicacy. There 

 is a tradition among the natives that a box of money was found in the stomach 

 of a dugong which was cut up in the Pamban bazar some years ago ; and an 

 official is now always invited to be present at the examination of the stomach 

 contents, so that the possessors of the carcase may not be punished under the 

 Treasure Trove Act for concealing treasure. But the stomach contents invari- 

 ably prove to be green sea-grasses (phanerogams) which are very abundant in 

 the shallows of one to three feet in depth on the Ceylon coast of the Gulf of 

 Manaar, and almost entirely exclude the sea weeds (algfe). The fat of the 

 dugong is believed to be efficacious in the treatment of dysentery, and is ad- 

 ministered in the form of sweetmeats, or used instead of gJii (clarified butter) 

 in the preparation of food. The skeleton of a female dugong in the Madras 

 museum shows, encased in the upper jaw, the functionless teeth, the blunt 

 points of which are, during life, covered by a fleshy lip forming a snout. The 

 female is described by Tennent when suckling her young, as holding it to her 

 breast with one flipper, while swimming with the other, holding the heads of 

 both above water, and, when disturbed, suddenly diving and displaying her 

 fish-like tad." 



The skull of one of these Marine animals was presented to the Bombay 

 Natural History Society by Mr. C. M. Sykes, in April, 1893, the carcase having 

 been washed ashore at Mandvi on the Coast of Cutch.' — (Ed.) 



No. IX. -A TIGER KILLING A PANTHER. 



When in camp the other day at the little village of Kalesar, on the Nizam's- 

 side of the Godavery, opposite Sironcha, I heard a curious story of a tiger 

 killing a panther, and after considerable cross-examination elicited the following, 

 information which may perhaps be worth sending you. 



About a fortnight ago some villagers, on their way to work at daylight, came 

 across, in open country, the recent marks of a tiger and some blood where he 

 appeared to have dragged away some animal. Seeing, as they thought, their 

 way to beef for breakfast, the men got a tomtom from the village and 

 followed up the tracks. Suddenly a tiger (or tigress they say) bounded out of 

 some bushes and made for the forest. On going up to the bushes, instead of 

 a cow, they found a full grown panther (female) frightfully mauled, but still 

 breathing. They state its back was apparently broken and parts of the 

 interior torn out and that apparently the tigress had drunk some of the blood. 

 I saw the skin which was that of a rather large panther. It was much torn, 

 and a large piece 6" x 5" had been cut out of the centre of the back. 



W. F. BISCOE. 



Secunderabap, March, 1895. 



