6y6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and neglect any branch of zoology simply because it promises to give results of 

 economic importance. The inauguration of the Survey is to be welcomed in the 

 first instance because it gives zoology and zoologists in India a definite status. 

 People visiting India, whether for purposes of private research or as expert 

 advisers to the Central or Provincial Governments on zoological products, have 

 now a definite official bureau to which they may apply for assistance. 



The great defect in the constitution of the Zoological Survey at present is the 

 miserable inadequacy of the staff. We hope to hear of proposals for the immediate 

 appointment (or as soon as suitable men may be available) of at least half a dozen 

 additional officers of the rank of assistant superintendent, and of one who would 

 occupy a post as Superintendent or Deputy Director. This is the bare minimum 

 necessary to ensure an adequate treatment of the subject, and unless appoint- 

 ments of this kind can be made we think, to be quite frank, that the Government 

 would have been better advised to leave the whole question of zoological research 

 in its original condition. 



It would be presumption on our part to attempt to advise Dr. Annandale, 

 whose knowledge of Indian and Asiatic zoology is probably unsurpassed, as to 

 what is required in the shape of additional staff; but for the information of the 

 Indian Government there is no harm in saying that a zoological survey for a 

 country like India which does not contain specialists on such groups as the 

 Diptera, Protozoa, Higher Vertebrata, and Mollusca is hardly worthy of the 

 name. 



If any justification were needed for the creation of the Survey it is to be found 

 in this, the first, annual report. Prior to the establishment of the Survey what may 

 be called semi-official reports on Indian zoology were published under the title 

 of " Records and Memoirs of the Indian Museum," and these reports are to be 

 continued in the same form and under the same titles, but presumably with the 

 imprimatur of the Survey. Both the Records and the Memoirs are well known to 

 naturalists, and we agree that it is wise to continue them in their original form. 

 Valuable information on the Indian fauna is also to be found in the "Fauna of 

 British India," a work of some forty volumes published in London under the 

 authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council. The chief defect of the 

 " Fauna " is that the major part of it has been written and published in England 

 by naturalists who, in many cases, were quite unacquainted with Indian conditions. 

 We believe we are correct in saying that it was as recently as 1910 that volumes 

 of the " Fauna " were first actually prepared in India. Considering that in many 

 groups observation of the living animals is, to say the least, highly desirable, and 

 considering also that the collections of some groups in the Indian Museum are 

 perhaps the best in the world, it is to be hoped that in the future we shall see 

 more and more of the volumes prepared in India itself under the direct influence 

 of the Zoological Survey. In fact the future volumes ought to be prepared by, or 

 under the authority of, the Survey. 



The surpassing interest of the first annual report of the Zoological Survey of 

 India lies in the great promise it holds out of considerable additions to the list of 

 Asiatic animals of more than ordinary interest. How little is really known of the 

 details of the Indian fauna may be gathered from one or two examples culled 

 from the report : 



" In a worm-eaten post on the shore of the Hughli we found the first 

 specimen of a new and interesting genus of crabs, we obtained other new and 

 interesting Crustacea from the river itself. . . . Considering the fact that the 

 Hughli has been explored by naturalists for the last fifty years, and that my 



