788 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
“ I have protested before in the Society’s journal against hasty differen- 
tiation of subspecies based on insufficient data [vide my notes on the horns of 
the Thamin) and I think that ‘ Wait and see ’ is the motto to adopt in the 
case of the Tsaine in this respect.” 
“ Recent correspondence in the ‘ Field ’ has shown what a terrible muddle 
has been made of the Waterbucks and Kobs through Museum workers rushing 
to append new names to specimens with insufficient material to work on, with the 
result that now the genera and species are so mixed, that it is difficult to say 
w'hat is a Kob and what a Waterbuck. Museum workers who do this sort of thing, 
put themselves in the position of staff officers who issue orders wdthout reference 
to the information received from the front line, or who make no attempt to ob- 
tain such information : the result in each case is the same — chaos.” 
The dependence of the Museum worker on the Field Xaturahst is here 
definitely expressed. He relies on the field observer not only for material but 
also for information as regards the conditions under which the species he is 
examining lives and has its being ; including data as regards the time when the 
particular specimen was obtained, the locality, the altitude, and whether any 
variations in colour have been observed due to sex, age or season in any given 
district. Col. Evans and Major Stockley’s notes on the Tsaine can be cited as 
an instance how far intelligent observation can go towards assisting in this 
direction. 
S. H. Prater, C. M. Z. S. 
Bombay Natural History Society. 
Power of Scent in Wild Animals. 
{Misc. Note No 1, Fol. XXVIII, No. 1.) 
Major W. M. Logan Home writes : — I have read Mr. Copley’s notes on “ The 
Power of Scent in Wild Animals”, in Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, with interest. 
I think however most sportsmen who have done much stalking in the Hima- 
la\’as will agree wrth me that Mr. Copley’s observations on lack of power of 
scent in wild animals do not in the least apply to Himalayan Game. 
It is well known, for instance, that bears have most remarkable powers of 
scent : I have known a brown bear scent me 1,400 yards off, and I have had many 
stalks after black bears spoilt by their getting our wind. 
The same appUes to Ibex and Markhor. I remember on one occasion, my 
shikari and I were sitting in full view of a small herd of Ibex, which were about 
25 yards off and feeding past us ; although several of them looked straight at 
us, they continued feeding until they had got round to our wind side when thej’ 
suddenly snorted and rushed off downhill and I can remember many other in- 
stances of the same sort where we eluded detection by sitting motionless against 
rocks or trees until the beasts worked round into the wnnd. 
I remember losing the biggest Ibex I ever saw by neglecting to properly test 
the wnnd and as the incident might be of interest I give it below : — 
My shikari and I and a local Balti cooly had been lying all day on the top of 
a ridge watching the Ibex, 4 fine old males, and one a very big head, where 
shown 400 yards below us. The wind where we lay blew straight up towards us 
from below from both sides and along up the ridge. 
At about 4 p.m. I told the cooly to go back to camp the path led past the 
position of the Ibex but w'as hidden from view of the animals as it lay on the 
opposite side of the ridge. When he reached a point to the windward of the 
Ibex they suddenly got to their feet and rushed madly down in a direction 
away from the cooly halting after going about 200 yards and gazing bank in 
the direction from which they came. 
I reahsed then, to my disgust, that an eddy of wind had come round the ridge 
and carried the cooly’s scent to the Ibex. The latter made off right across the 
valley and I saw them no more. The cooly was in my view all the time and w'as 
