1881.] W. T. Blan ford's Census of the Indian Land Fauna. 2(i:i 



XVIII. — A numerical Estimate of the Species of Animals chiefly Land and 

 Freshwater hitherto recorded from British India and its Dependen- 

 cies. — By William T. Blanford, F. R. S. 



[Received November 10th ;— Read December 7th, 1881.] 

 A few months ago I endeavoured to obtain an estimate of the number 

 of species belonging to the animal kingdom that are found in British India 

 and its Dependencies. I learned, somewhat to my surprise, that not only 

 did no such census of the nominal species exist, but that, with the exception 

 of the Vertebrata, the classes and orders had but rarely been catalogued in 

 such a manner as to render an estimate of the number of species found in 

 different countries practicable. I learned, moreover that, owing doubtless 

 to the difficulty of ascertaining the number of species described, it was 

 impossible to obtain a general enumeration of the fauna of any large area 

 of the earth's surface. 



The marine fauna inhabiting the seas around India is necessarily of 

 vast extent and very imperfectly known. Confining myself, in the sub- 

 kingdoms except the Vertebrata, to the land and freshwater fauna alone, I 

 found anything like a correct estimate of the known species, except 

 amongst the Vertebrata and the Mollusca, very difficult to procure. With 

 the assistance of some friends, to whom I am greatly indebted for their 

 aid, I have, however, obtained a rough idea of the number of species hither- 

 to recorded in several orders, and this estimate leads to some very curious 

 results, so much so that I think it may be useful to publish the data I 

 have obtained, imperfect as they are. 



In the first place, I should state precisely what is the area that I 

 understand as comprised in the title of British India and its Dependencies. 

 Of course the whole Peninsula of India proper is included, together with 

 Ceylon. On the westward, Baluchistan is classed as a dependency, but 

 not Afghanistan, so that the western frontier extends to Persia. Kashmir 

 carries the boundary northward beyond the Karakoram pass to the confines 

 of Eastern Turkestan, but this is the only Trans-Himalayan region com- 

 prised in the limits adopted ; further east the small Himalayan states 

 between Kashmir and Kamaon, with Kamaon itself, Nepal, Sikkim, and 

 Bhutan, are all included as Dependencies, although in the case of Nepal and 

 Bhutan the position politically is open to some question. But the fauna 

 of these countries has always been included in that of India, and but few 

 forms are known from them that do not occur in Sikkim or some other 

 truly dependent state. All Great Tibet is excluded and so are the Hima- 

 layan tracts east of Bhutan. Assam with the hills to the south of the 

 valley, Manipur, Cachar, Sylhet, Tipperah, Chutiaganj, and British Burmah 

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