About the end of January the first jungle fire sweeps over the plain and destroys the dry herbage, leaving small patches here and there about the edges of swamps. The second burning takes place about the end of March, and leaves scarcely a blade of grass behind it ; the plain is then almost entirely bare, and the deer having no cover congregate in large herds. They are then to be seen on all sides, and, the buffaloes having previously withdrawn to the tree jungle, are left alone in their glory, and, as noticed before by Colonel Blake, become at this time excessively wary. From the middle of February until the first showers fall at the end of April they apparently subsist without water, they lie in salt swamps during this period, and get the benefit of the heavy dews at night. Their only enemy appears to be man, but an epidemic occasionally breaks out amongst them and destroys large numbers. The last occurred in 1863, and some fifty or sixty head fell victims. The cause of this murrain is unknown, it is probably analagous to that which yearly in Burmah, during the rains, creates such havoc amongst domestic cattle. The Burmese readily eat the diseased flesh, and experience no bad effects from doing so. The disease attacks old and young alike, apparently causing great emaciation and loss of strength, and the animal at last dies of pure weakness. It will probably be found to be some swelling or affection of the throat and lungs, which prevents the animal from eating.

There seems to be no doubt that, in Burmah, this species is gradually decreasing, and will, at no distant date, be excessively rare. This can be accounted for by the gradual but steady increase of the population, and the greater area of country (which must naturally increase yearly) which is taken up for the cultivation of rice. Unfortunately for the thamyn, the whole of their favourite locale is excessively well adapted to the cultivation of rice, and there is no doubt that where the indigenous wild plant is found, there also the cultivated variety will flourish. The rice trade of Burmah is yearly increasing in extent; and a few years bid fair to see the present haunts of the thamyn not unlike the present state of the greater portion of the rice producing plains of lower Bengal, An intelligent Burmese shikarree, who has been a hunter from his youth upwards and is now an elderly man, tells me that in former years, before Martaban was taken by the British, the thamyn were much more abundant than they are now, and that

the natives used to destroy them wholesale at battues: a large number of men would assemble from the surrounding villages and gradually encircle three or four moderately sized herds with long strings, upon which plantain leaves were tied so as to flutter in the wind. The circle originally formed at some distance was gradually lessened, as the deer, afraid to pass the scarecrows, got gradually driven together, until they were completely surrounded and at the mercy of the hunters. The object was to get them into a corner near the heavy jungle, into which if they attempted to run, they either became entangled or allowed their pursuers to get up quite close. My informant tells me that, in former years, he has himself seen as many as 150 to 200 killed in one battue. To such a length was this system carried, and such enormous havoc thereby created, that the Burmese Government, fearing that the species would be utterly exterminated, wisely put a stop to the practice. This shikarree informed me that five-and-twenty years ago he has seen as many as five hundred head in one herd, and his account was confirmed by others. At the present day, vast mounds of their bones, in every stage of decay, exist on the Thatong plain, the site of many a battue in former times. The value of a whole carcass then was only 4 annas ortical weight of Burmese silver, equivalent to eight or ten annas of our coinage at the present day! Several intelligent men are now living in the vicinity of Thatong and Yengyaing who formerly took part in these wholesale slaughterings, and, like many others of the present generation, are apt to look back fondly to those good old times.

These battues or kyowine were preceded by all sorts of ceremonies and sacrificial rites, offerings being previously made to the tutelary nâts or deities of the woods and plains, to ensure success. In addition to these battues, and the recent increase of cultivation and population, we may account for their gradual decrease by the great increase that has taken place, of late years, in the number and use of fire-arms. Nearly every Burman can shoot, and a large proportion have each their matchlock or cheap Birmingham gun. It is excessively difficult to catch a thamyn, even a young one, alive, owing to the open nature of the country which they frequent; and several officers in the Burmese Commission have for some time past been endeavouring, without success, to procure young individuals of both sexes

for the Zoological Society of London.* Major Tickell had one alive for some time in Moulmein, but it was eventually killed by pariah dogs which got into its enclosures at night. My informant, the shikarree, tells me that he had one also tame some years since; he caught it when about three months old, fed it on milk at first, and afterwards on grass and plantain leaves, and, after a short time, it became so tame that it would follow its owner about, and never attempt to leave the dwellings of man; after an interval of two years, it got a small pair of horns shaped like those of the adult, but much smaller. Finally, like most pets, it met with an untimely end, being stolen and killed for food by rapacious Burmese officials. From this the species appear to be capable of easy domestication, although it is said by some invariably to pine away and die after capture. The horns of the species are of large size, and are kept by the natives for making handles for sickles. The small ones are of no value, and are either thrown away or cut up and used as pegs.

As to medicinal qualities, when a buffaloe is bitten by a snake, the horn of the thamyn ground to powder is mixed with a solution of the leaves of the "Yekazoon" (Ipomea. sp. or convolvulus,) and given internally, as it is said to cure the bitten animal immediately. No other part of the beast appears to be used medicinally, and the above mentioned nostrum is of no avail for the human race.

In conclusion, there is one point to which I wish to draw especial attention, as one on which our information at present is very limited. It is not known for certain whether the thamyn, in its first year, has horns without the brow antler, or whether they are the same as those of adult individuals, but smaller and with fewer tynes. The pros and cons on either side of the question are I find about equal. It remains for those who have the opportunity of rearing the young animal in captivity, or of shooting a young one, to prove which is the right view

of the case.

I have since heard that Col. Phayre has one at the present time alive at Rangoon, and Mr. Grote one at Alipore, supposed to be the young of this species.

A fine full grown stag which I received for Col. Phayre is now in the Zoological Soc. Gardens, London.-Editor.

Zoological Notes.

By William T. Blanford, F. G. S.

Cor. Mem. Z. S. Lon.

[Received 10th June, 1867.]

The following notes refer chiefly to the distribution of various animals in India and Burma, and to the habits of a few species. There is much in them which is probably not new, more especially with regard to the habits of animals. Still the subject is so interesting, and so little studied by naturalists for want of opportunity, that I trust these few remarks may have some interest. All the facts noted are from personal observation, except where the contrary is stated.

1. The Lion in India. Mr. Blyth, about 2 years since, called attention to the circumstance that lions had been recently met with in parts of India in which the animal had been supposed to be extinct. Since that time, one or two other localities have been added to the list of those in which lions have been met with. A paragraph went the round of the newspapers rather more than a year ago, in 1866, to the effect that a lion had been killed near Rewah. An account of the death of this animal was given in the new Oriental Sporting Magazine; and again in "Land and Water," for December 8th, 1866, Captain Le Mesurier described the locality and gave the dimensions of the skin. The animal was killed by Messrs. Lovell and Kelsey, of the Jubbulpoor railway staff: it was a fine male with a full mane. The dimensions of the stretched skin were the following:

So that the animal, when alive, probably measured rather less than 9 feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, measured as tigers usually are, that is, by carrying a tape from the nose over the head and along the middle of the back.

The mane is specially mentioned as very full, the longest hairs being about eleven inches in length, the colour yellow sandy, except. on the crown of the head, along the crest, and across the shoulders, where a blackish shade prevailed, the hairs being white, black and

yellow, in about equal proportions. The ears were black on the outside, and the tip of the tail was also black; the lower tip white. From the dark colour of a portion of the hair, there can be little doubt that this was not an aged animal, although, from the fully developed mane, it must have been mature, and not a young lion. The spot where it was killed was near the 80th milestone, on the railway from Allahabad to Jubbulpoor.

I am indebted to Mr. Grote for a note from Captain Le Mesurier confirming the above particulars, and adding the following, also mentioned in the letter published in "Land and Water."

"Some few years ago Mr. Court, who is now Commissioner of Allahabad, and a very good sportsman, disturbed two lions on the rocky plain near Sheorajpúr, twenty-five miles west of Allahabad, when he was stalking antelope."

"Two years ago (1864) Mr. Arratoon of the Police shot at and wounded a lion very near Sheorajpúr, and eventually, with native help, stoned him to death, as he had no spare ammunition. Some of the members of my staff saw the skin, and got the story, nearly as I relate it, from Mr. Arratoon, who still holds a police appointment somewhere in the N. W. Provinces."

The last authenticated appearances of an animal now verging on extinction in Central India are, I think, sufficiently worth preserving to demand a record. The Sheorajpúr lion is, I believe, the furthest to the eastward yet known as having been killed in the present century. Col. Torrens also has written to Mr. Grote to say that lions still occur about Lalatpúr, between Jhansi and Saugor.

A few lions appear to be killed every year about Gwalior and Goona, but the animal is scarce, and, being eagerly sought after by some of the keenest sportsmen in India, it is rapidly becoming scarcer. In the hot weather of 1866 no less than 9 lions were shot by one party in the neighbourhood of Kota in Rajpootana. My information is derived directly from one of the sportsmen, Major Baigire. Of one of these Rajpootana lions I have seen a coloured drawing, taken immediately after death by an excellent artist. The mane was very fine and well developed, although the beast was killed in the hot weather, when the mane, like the rest of the fur, is doubtless thinner than in the winter.