il Prefure. 
in the very limited time which the Dehra Dun students 
are able to devote to the subject. Itis hoped, however, that 
the result will be sufficient to enable the young Forest Officer 
to obtain, without undue labour, a sound elementary know- 
ledge of the classification and relative importance of the 
commoner and more noticeable animals which come under 
his observation, with some general idea of their various 
habits. 
In the chapters devoted to the Insecta the writer has 
been able to draw upon the experience gained during the 
nine years he has been in charge of the Entomological 
Section of the Indian Museum in Calcutta. With regard to 
the remaining groups no claim is put forward to originality 
of treatment, though it may be stated that the information 
has been brought together in the course of actual teaching 
and that the practical work is in each case described afresh 
from common Indian species, which occasionally differ in 
matters of detail from the forms dealt with in existing text- 
books. 
Since no reliable knowledge of Zoology can possibly be 
imparted by mere theoretical teaching a very considerable 
portion of the manual will be found to be devoted to direc- 
tions for the dissection and examination of actual specimens. 
The dissections described can easily be performed in class 
by the students themselves, with the help of the extremely 
simple appliances that are available, while the specimens 
required are only such as are readily procurable in India. 
The classification is chiefly based upon structural characters 
which the students are intended, wherever practicable, to 
confirm for themselves by actual examination of speci- 
mens. 
Attention has been especially directed to the classification 
of the groups which contain animals that are of practical 
importance in Indian forests, the others being merely alluded 
to shortly, in cases where it is necessary to mention them at 
all, in order to avoid giving an erroneous idea of the nature 
