20 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. V, 1915.] 



the evidence available points to the fact of there being a large number of species in 

 both divisions of the animal kingdom which occasionally enter this part of the lake 

 from the sea in the salt-water season, and it would not be unreasonable to expect to 

 find in the channel at that season stray individuals of any member of the littoral 

 fauna of the adjacent parts of the Bay of Bengal. 



The shallowness of the water on the bar at Mugger-Mukh and in the northern 

 part of the main area generally makes it impossible for any but a small boat to enter the 

 outer channel or to proceed much north of Nalbano between October and August, and 

 consequently we were unable to make use, except in September, of our larger nets 

 either in the channel or in the shallows of the northern region. A considerable 

 number of the marine species found in the former part of the lake in September but 

 not in March probably escaped our notice in spring for this reason, and it is also pro- 

 bable that our series of fish and possibly of reptiles would have been considerably 

 augmented if we had had the use of the launch between Satpara and the mouth of 

 the lake at all seasons. The freshwater season (roughly the middle of August to the 

 middle of October) is, however, the critical period in the study of those animals that 

 are able to withstand great changes in salinity and September is therefore perhaps the 

 most interesting month in the year so far as the outer channel is concerned. There 

 is, moreover, no reason to postulate any great difference between the faunas of the 

 northern and central parts of the main area, except in so far as extreme shallowness 

 of water is indirectly destructive of animal life owing to increased temperature. So 

 far as the main area is concerned, the only faunistic boundary that we are able to 

 distinguish extends from Kalidai Id. towards Parikudh. 



In our own papers we have included notes on and descriptions of species allied 

 to those from the Chilka Lake but found in the Gangetic delta or in lagoons on 

 the Indian coasts, in cases in which this course seemed desirable. 



Acknowledgments. 

 In the first place we have to thank both the specialists abroad who are helping us 

 in the preparation of this report and our colleagues in Calcutta who have assisted us 

 in the field and in the laboratory. The artists of the Museum and of the Marine 

 Survey of India, Babus A. C. Chowdhury, S. C. Mondul and D. N. Bagchi, have 

 devoted their usual skill to the preparation of the plates and figures that illustrate our 

 papers, while Mr. G. M. Henry of the Colombo Museum has prepared several sketches 

 of living animals that have been of great use in describing the species. To our 

 assistant in the field, Mr. R. Hodgart, much of the success of our collecting is due. 

 Mr. C. Dodsworth, agent for the Kallikota estates, helped us considerably at Rambha 

 and elsewhere, and we have to thank the Superintending Engineer, Orissa Circle, and 

 the Inspector of Salt Revenue at Satpara for the use of bungalows or boats on the 

 lake. Last but not least of our obligations are those to Colonel Sir S. G. Burrard, 

 F.R.S., and other officers of the Survey of India, who gave us invaluable technical 

 advice and placed at our disposal the scientific instruments that rendered the neces- 

 sary physical observations possible. 



