642 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



Mammal Survey. A glance at the original prospectus issued by 

 our Society in connection with the Mammal Survey would have 

 revealed the reasons why it was undertaken, not to try and discover 

 new species, but because " no systematic collection of the mammals 

 of India has been made since the time of Hodgson, Horsfield, 

 Elliot, Sykes, Jerdon, and Blanford. . „ . . a few private 

 volunteers. Colonel Ward, Major Dunn, Major Magrath, Mr. White- 

 head and others, have lent a helping hand in recent years, but pro- 

 gress in this manner has been necessarily very slow." The lack of 

 specimens of Indian Mammals in the National collection at the 

 British Museum (Natural History), South Kensington, is deplor- 

 able,* and it is with the idea of helping our own collections as well 

 as that of the National collections that the Survey was resolved 

 upon by our Society. The Survey was not undertaken merely to 

 obtain new species, otherwise we should not have commenced by 

 sending our Collectors to Khandesh and Dharwar, and 

 Mr. Wroughton from the British Museum (Natural History), writing 

 on 5th February 1912, says, "the topotypes in the Dharwar lot are 

 invaluable, the first really firm foundation we have had," 



This is sufiicient encouragement to us. 



As regards finance, when the last Journal was published some 

 Rs, 20,816 had been received for the special fund for carrying on 

 the Mammal Survey. Since then the Society has received some 

 Rs. 5,582, so that the total received up to date is Rs. 26,398, out 

 of which Rs. 9,879 has been spent. 



The Survey with only two Collectors will ta ke several years to 

 complete and therefore we must try and obtain a further 

 Rs. 25,000 or Rs. 30,000. This should not be very difiicult as our 

 members will surely appreciate the value of the work as it proceeds, 

 and as they see the results being published in Mr. Wroughton's 

 reports in the Journal. The first report (Khandesh) appears in this 

 number (page 39 2 j and the 2nd (Berars) and 3rd (Cutch) have also 

 been received and will appear in the next number of the Journal. 

 March, 1912. 



*Mr. Oldfield Thomas in our original prospectus wrote as follows :— " There is no 

 doubt that the representation of oar Indian Mammal Fauna in the National 

 Museum has fallen behind other parts of the world and is very f ar short of what 

 it shoivld be." 



