314 Records oj the Indian Museum. [Vol. XXII, 



My thanks are all the more due to those who have helped me. 

 I have received much assistance from other members of the 

 Zoological Survey of India and may mention in particular 

 Dr. F. H. Gravely, now Superintendent of the Madras Museum , 

 who has worked on the fauna of Barkuda as a collector, a field 

 naturalist and a taxonomist. Mons. L. Chopard has kindly offered 

 a report on the Orthoptera and Professor Silvestri one on 

 the termites and the incolaeol their nests. Lt.-Col. H. H. Godwin 

 Austen ' has already published notes on the land molluscs and 

 Lt.-Col J. Stephenson * on the Oligochaete worms, while the 

 late Mr. C. A. Paiva ' described the Rhynchota. Most of the 

 identifications of Cicindelid beetles I owe to Dr. W. Horn, and 

 of butterflies to U.-Col. W. H. Evans, R.E. ; Lt.-Col. F. Wall, 

 I.M.S , has kindly examined most of the snakes, Mr. E. Brunetti 

 of the Diptera and Major F. C. Eraser, I.M.S. , and Dr. F. F. 

 Laidlaw of the dragonflies. 



A few reports on separate groups are issued with this in- 

 troduction and others will, I hope, be published later. I propose 

 to preface the series with a short general account of the fauna, 

 indicating so far as possible at present its main peculiarities 

 and deficiencies. This account should of course be read with the 

 paper to which 1 have referred in the first sentence on the 

 preceding page. 



Mammalian Fauna. 



The Mammalian Fauna of the island is, like that of most 

 other groups, chiefly remarkable for its deficiencies. There are no 

 carnivores except mungooses (which have perhaps disappeared 

 lately), no ungulates except an introduced herd of Chital, no 

 monkeys, no squirrels, no porcupines or hedgehogs and now very 

 few bats. The only abundant terr-^strial species, indeed, are a 

 shrew of the genus Pachyura and a race of Raltus raUiis. The 

 only common bat is now the Indian Flying Fox. 



Avifauna. 

 The Fauna of Land Birds is even more scanty, relatively, than 

 that of mammals, only three species being abundant at all seasons, 

 namely the two common Indian crows {Corvus macrorhynchns and 

 C. splendens) and the Mynah (Acridotheres iristis). A green 

 pigeon visits the island in large flocks in the rainy season, but all 

 other land birds are mere casual visitors or nest in solitary pairs. 

 Even shore birds are less abundant than at many other spots in 

 the Chilka Lake, but several egrets and herons and a cormorant 

 often roost upon the trees in considerable numbers. 



Fauna of Reptiles and Batrachia. 



The Fauna of Reptiles and Batrachia, comprising 17 or 18 

 species, is comparatively rich. There are six lizards, ten snakes, 



1 Rec. Jnd. Mus., XIII, pp. 349-351 (1917). 



2 Mem. Ind. Mus. V, pp. 139-146; 483-490 (1915). 

 •' Rec. hui. Mus. XV. pp. 1-16 (1917). 



