1867.] Mr. W. T. Blanford's Zoological Notes. 191 



From a native I learn that in a recent beat in Rajpootana (some- 

 where on the neighbourhood of Kota), no less than 10 lions were 

 turned out. If this story be true, and I think I have heard of similar 

 large gatherings amongst African lions, this animal occasionally collects 

 in much larger numbers than tigers do. At the same time I do not 

 place much faith in the story. The largest number of tigers of which 

 I ever heard as being found together was six. These were full grown 

 animals. Five I have several times heard of. In such cases all are 

 one family, the old tiger and tigress and their full grown progeny. 

 A tigress not unfrequently has 3 or 4 cubs (I have known the latter 

 number of fceti to be taken from the body of a sla,in animal) but they 

 rarely, I suspect, all attain to muturity. 



The lion seems still to exist in 3 isolated parts of Central and 

 Western India, omitting its occasional occurrence in Bundelkund. 

 These are (1) from near Grwalior to Kotah. (2) Around Deesa and 

 mount Aboo, and thence southwards nearly to Ahmedabad and (3) in 

 part of Kattiawar, in the jungles known as the Gheer. It is possible 

 that isolated examples may yet remain in others of its original haunts. 



I may add that the opinion expressed by Mr. Blyth (Cat. Mam. in 

 Mus. As. Soc.) of the inferiority in size of the lion to the tiger is 

 quite borne out by all I have heard on the subject. Major Baigire, 

 one of the best known tiger hunters of Western India, who has also 

 killed more than one lion, told me that the muscular development of 

 the latter animal, as displayed in the skinned carcase, is decidedly less 

 than that of the former. 



2. The hunting leopard, Felis (cynalurus) jubatus. Blyth, in his 

 catalogue, gives the range of this animal in India as confined to the west 

 and south. It is found throughout the greater portion if not the whole 

 of the Central Provinces, though everywhere scarce, and I have seen 

 the skin of a specimen killed near Deogurh in the Sonthal pergunnahs, 

 and brought to that station by a shikaree. I think it will be found to 

 exist, here and there, almost throughout the Peninsula. In Cutch it 

 is said to be the only large feline existing, but I cannot speak positively 

 on this subject. 



3. The wild dog. Cuon rutilans, Pallas. 



The ordinary prey of these animals, who, as is well known, hunt 

 in packs, is the sambar (Rusa Aristotelis, Cuv.), the chital or spotted 



