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PREFACE. 



The first part of this volume, containing the Introduction, 

 Primates, Carnivora, and Insectivora, was published at the 

 end of June 1888. The delay of more than three years in 

 completing the work has been caused by the necessity of 

 devoting a large portion of my time to the editing of the 

 five volumes belonging to the same series that liave appeared 

 since the first part of the present work was issued. 



The Mammalia of British India, inclusive of Ceylon and 

 Burma, here enumerated and described, just exceed 400 in 

 number. Jerdon's ' Mammals of India,^ published in 1867, 

 contained descriptions of 242 species ; but the area as now 

 defined considerably exceeds the limits adopted by Jerdon, 

 who excluded from his work all forms peculiar to Ceylon or 

 Burma, and to all countries north of the main Himalavan 

 range, west of the Indus, or east of the Bay of Bengal and 

 of a line drawn northwards from the head of it. The greatest 

 advance since Jerdon wrote, in our knowledge of Indian 

 Mammals, has been in the orders oE Chiroptera, Insectivora, 

 and Bodentia, whilst the order with which, at the present 

 time, our acquaintance is most imperfect is that of Cetacea. 



In Sterndale^s ' Natural History of the Mammalia of India 

 and Ceylon,^ published in 1884, the number of species is 482 ; 

 but some of these are not found in British Territory, and 



