ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 263 
ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 
A CURIOUS INSTANCE OF FRIGHT. 
In the last number of the Journal I noticed that Mr. Vidal, in his letter on 
“ Poisonous Lizards,’? mentions several cases of the effects of fright on a native 
when under the impression that he had been bitten by some poisonous reptile. 
The following incident, which occurred at one of my camps, may be interesting. 
One evening one of my subordinates told me a coolie had been bitten by a 
snake; I went and examined the man, who said he had been bitten on the inside 
of the big toe. Careful examination, however, showed no puncture or even scratch. 
To put the man’s mind at ease I admnistered a large dose of brandy. The man 
did not seem frightened, his chief idea being to go and kill the snake. He 
gradually got worse, and in a quarter of an hour he was insensible, skin cold. 
froth at the lips, quite rigid, and most remarkable of all, his eyes were insensible 
to light. His pulse was, however, fairly steady and good. I could do nothing 
more for him, but one of the coolies came up and asked to say Mantras over 
him. Having got permission, he took a small Jota of water and standing quite 
six feet from the man began to recite, every now and then sprinkling a little water 
towards, but not on, the man. In ten minutes the coolie was walking about 
perfectly well. There is in my mind no doubt that the saying of the Mantras 
cured the man, not from any inherent efficacy m them, but simply because the 
man’s faith in them was greater than the fear of the snake poison. 
F, E. DEMPSTER, 
26th July 1888. Myingyan, Upper Burmah. 
A FOX EATING WHITH-ANTS (TERMITES). 
Dr. Sruwart, of the Poona Horse, who is acareful observer, writes as follows 
on 7th November 1888 :— 
“Qn the 5th instant, while breaking a young horse, I came upon a fox ina 
ditch by the side of the road. There had beenrain, and he was on a white-ants’ 
nest, from which numbers of the winged white-ants were issuing. About 40 
crows were crowding round him, barely keeping “at arm’s length” and hardly 
afraid of him. As I came up, at a walk, he retired into a field about 20 yards, but 
almost immediately turned and went back. All the crows on this rose from the 
nest with a noise that would have alarmed most animals, but he only hesitated 
a moment and then ran eagerly and quickly to the nest again. I have not the 
slightest doubt he was eating the white-ants. I passed within four yards of the 
nest and saw there was no carrion of any sort on it, for the ground was bare ; 
on the other hand his very eager manner and the position he took up on the nest, 
left no doubt in my mind what he was after. Had I been able to do so, I 
should have watched him.” 
It is not at all unlikely that the fox was engaged in this excellent work of 
destruction, as the number of birds and animals, which feed on these excellent little 
insects, is very | large. I once saw a squirrel at Matheran scratching the redearth off 
a dead tree and greedily devouring the white-ants beneath, which greatly surprised 
me, as I had always supposed the squirrels to be striet vegetarians.— Editor, 
