xiv Rejiort on the Zoological Survey of India 



but I believe that the series will prove valuable in the study of 

 somatology. 



Shortly before the end of the financial year in March, 1917, we 



were so fortunate as to obtain the assistance of 



MusicaMnstruments. j^^ (, ^ Meerwarth, Assistant Curator of the 



Ethnographical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the 

 scientific arrangement of the musical instruments displayed in the 

 Museum gallery. A little guide-book to the collection he is pre- 

 paring, though naturally to a large extent compiled, will, I believe, be 

 a real contribution to ethnography. I will refer to Dr. Meerwarth's 

 work again in describing the progress made in the Museum galleries. 



Publications. 



The serial publications of the Zoological Survey are two, the 



Records of the Indian Museum and the Memoirs 



Official publications. ^^ ^j^^ Indian Museum. In the negociations for 



the lecognition of the new department it was accepted as a principle 

 that as little change as possible should be made in its organization. 

 In reference to the publications in particular we decided to avoid 

 the grave bibliographical inconvenience that would have been in- 

 volved in a change of title. The " Records " and the " Memoirs" 

 will therefore continue to be issued in their old form and with as 

 little interruption as may be possible in war time. A list of the 

 papers issued in them since the beginning of the financial year 

 1916-17 is given in appendix H. 



, The special volume of the " Memoirs " on the faunistic survey 

 of the Chilka Lake is still in the course of publication ; we hope 

 in the present year to be able to write ' -finis ' to the volume of the 

 " Records " devoted to the Abor Expedition of 1911-12. 



As the experience of the Survey extends we find ourselves in a 

 position to undertake a certain amount of work 

 Non-official pubh= n some cases based on our own collections and 

 cations. : ^ • ^ e • -, -n • 



in others on those submitted tor identification 



by institutioiii^ abroad) on the fauna of countries beyond the limits 

 of the Indian Empire. Thus, as a direct result of my Far Eastern 

 tour in 1915-16, I was able, in collaboration with Dr. T. Kawamura 

 of the Otsu Laboratory, to make a special study of the sponges 

 of Lake Biwa in Japan, in Shanghai I prepared short preliminary 

 descriptions of those collected in the Tai-Hu Lake, while in the 

 Raffles Museum at Singapore I selected examples of the deep-sea 

 barnacles obtained from telegraph cables in the Malay Archipelago. 

 In each instance the results were contributed to a local scientific 

 journal ; — the account of the sponges from Japan to the Journal of 

 the College of Sciences, Imperial University, Tokyo ; that of the 

 Chinese sponges to the Journal of the North China Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society ; that of the Malayan barnacles to the Journal 

 of the Straits Branch of the same Society. In special work of the 

 Icind I think that this is the correct course to follow. If we in India 



