758 



PROGEESS OF THE MAMMAL SURVEY. 



Owing to the War and the departure of our three collectors 

 Mr. Shortridge, Capt. Macmillan and Major Mayor for the front we 

 have not nmch progress to report in this Journal. 



Mr. Crump — the only remaining Collector — has completed his 

 work in Sikkim and amongst those who have rendered him great 

 assistance, mention must be made of Mr. R. S. Lister and Mr. 0. H. 

 Dracott, O.E., of Gangtok. Both of these gentlemen and also 

 Mr. H. Stevens are carrying on the work and are obtaining speci- 

 mens for us. After finishing Sikkim, Mr. Crump collected at 

 Darjeeling on the Eastern border of Nepal. He then descended to 

 Kurseong and Siliguri and is no^^' at Jalpaiguri where his tour will 

 end, as he is leaving India to proceed to England to join the 

 Army. 



We feel sure that members whilst regretting the circumstances 

 which have taken all our trained collectors from the work of the 

 Survey, will understand and applaud the spirit which thej^ are 

 showing. Much as we desire to complete the Mammal Survey of 

 India and Burma we know that members will recognize with us 

 the fact that the War must come before the Survey. We hope 

 that when the War is finished our collectors will return to complete 

 the Survey. 



As we had some of the skinners on our hands we thought it 

 advisable to continue the work on a small scale and therefore in 

 December we sent Mr. S. H. Prater, the head assistant in our 

 Museum, on an experimental trip to the Koyna Vallej^, Satara 

 District, to collect Mammals. Mr. Prater was away about a month 

 and 20 day?, and made an interesting collection of about 420 speci- 

 mens. On his return, as he was anxious to continue the work, we 

 sent him in March to the Upper Sind Frontier. Mr. Prater went 

 first to Jacobabad and Kashmir. After collecting there he left for 

 Sukkur and Khairpur State. He then proceeds to l.iarkhana 

 and after that comes South to Hyderabad (Sind) and Karachi. 

 Up to date Mr. Prater has obtained some 500 specimens in 

 Sind. 



The Society also received an offer of the services of Mr. R. 

 Shunkar Narayan Pillay to collect Mammals for them in Travan- 

 core and Southern India and we decided to avail ourselves of this 

 opportunity as specimens from S. India are desirable for com- 

 parison with those from Ceylon. Mr. Pillay commences work in 

 May. 



The following list of Mammals which are urgently required is 

 given in hopes that members resident in any of the districts 



