VI tteyort on tlie Zoological Survey of Indid 



trunk-like. These supports frequently rot away and then the 

 branches fall in ruins on the ground. The faun^ of their dead 

 wood is comparatively poor, entirely lacking the Laniellicorn beetles 

 found in dead wood in damper districts, but includes interesting 

 beetles of the family Tenebrionidse, and species of the orders 

 Thysanura and Collembola, as well as a considerable number of 

 wood-lice. The main trunks of the Banyan and also those of 

 Rumphius' fig are strengthened at their base by stout buttresses 

 that project in such a way as to form pockets or recesses filled with, 

 loose soil. In these pockets flourishes a fauna rich in burrowing 

 forms, many of which are predaceous. It includes a number of 

 trap-door spiders (Mygalomorphae), several Myriapoda and the only 

 terrestrial earthworm yet found on the island. It also includes the 

 peculiar lizard referred to above and two {Typhlops acutus and T. 

 dianli) of the four snakes found upon the islands. 



Of Mr. Kemp's tour in Portuguese India and North Canara it is 

 difficult to give a brief summary, because large areas were covered 

 and very rich and diverse faunas studied. Its 

 Inlrind NorlhSara! "^^"^ objects were two— to study the estuarine 

 fauna of Goa, and to collect specimens of the 

 animals of the dense evergreen jungles that lie inland, in British 

 territory, in the same part of India. The Portuguese authorities 

 treated Mr. Kemp with great courtesy. and gave him much assist- 

 ance in his work. In saying this I refer particularly to Captain 

 Froilano de Melo, Director of the Bacteriological Laboratory, Institute 

 de Analises e Vacina, Nova Goa, and Captain F. de Vasconcellos, 

 Port Officer at Mormagao. I also wish to express the thanks of the 

 department to Mrs. Kemp for the great help she has given on this and 

 many other occasions in the arranging and labelling of the collections 

 obtained on tour. The main results of a zoological expedition that 

 extends over more than a very limited area cannot be appreciated 

 immediately. Its importance must depend rather on the material 

 it provides for future study than on any immediate result of a precise 

 nature. Generally speaking, Mr. Kemp's tour was of importance 

 for two reasons :- (a) It provided material for the study of the 

 brackish water fauna of Western India and for the comparison of 

 this fauna with that of the deltaic tracts that abut on the Bay of 

 Bengal, and (6) it supplied us with collections from the tropical 

 jungles of a part of the country in the fauna of which the Indian 

 Museum was poor. The collection of Decapod Crustacea was ex- 

 tremely rich, more particularly in crabs, while several new or inter- 

 esting species are represented among the lizards and frogs ; at least 

 two snakes new to the collection of the Survey were also obtained. 



My own tour to Bangalore and Madras, which was undertaken 

 during the Durga puja holidays, had as its main object the inspec- 

 tion of the Indian Institute of Science, to the Board of Visitors of 



which I was elected some years ago. It was 

 Tours of inspection. ^j^^ ^^^^^^^j ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ f^^^^, 



ation of the new department, to be able to discuss matters with Sir 



