[Python] Python: remove rows with max value in each group

I have a pandas data frame df like this.

In [1]: df
Out[1]:
country count
0 Japan 78
1 Japan 80
2 USA 45
3 France 34
4 France 90
5 UK 45
6 UK 34
7 China 32
8 China 87
9 Russia 20
10 Russia 67


I want to remove rows with the maximum value in each group. So the result should look like:

country count
0 Japan 78
3 France 34
6 UK 34
7 China 32
9 Russia 20


My first attempt:

idx = df.groupby(['country'], sort=False).max()['count'].index
df_new = df.drop(list(idx))


My second attempt:

idx = df.groupby(['country'])['count'].transform(max).index
df_new = df.drop(list(idx))


But it didn't work. Any ideas?

Continue reading...