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INTRODUCTORY NOTE
THE MAIN OBJECT OF THIS NOTEis to introduce to the reader the
Fauna Volume, which is a special feature of the current series of Maharashtra
State Gazetteers. The usual arrangement of the India as well as State
Gazetteers has been to devote the initial volumes to general topics and to
follow these with a series of alphabetical volumes in case of India and
district volumes in case of the State Gazetteers. Thus the subject of fauna
forms Chapter 5 of Volume I of the 1965 edition of the Gazetteer of India,
relating to 'country and people'. In the 1909 edition of that Gazetteer, the first
volume was designated 'descriptive' and Chapter 5 was headed ' zoology’.
For the revised edition of the Maharashtra State Gazetteers, it was proposed
originally to publish general State volumes on these subjects : Botany,
Geography, History, People and their Culture, Language and Literature,
Public Administration. The Fauna Volume was added subsequently.
2. Genesis of the volume.—It was a happy decision taken by the Editorial
Board of the Maharashtra District Gazetteers (Revision) in October 1964 to
bring out a volume of about five hundred pages on the Fauna of
Maharashtra. When the Secretary of the Editorial Board approached the
Bombay Natural History Society in October 1964 with an inquiry whether
the Society would undertake the compilation of this volume, the Society
readily agreed to the proposal in principle; and in December 1964 it was
provisionally decided to have eight parts devoted to different animal groups,
and to request contributors (whose names were suggested) to undertake the
work. The Executive Committee of the Society entrusted to the writer the
work of general supervision of the compilation. Eventually, a meeting of the
proposed contributors to the Fauna Volume was held in March 1965, when a
scheme for compilation of the various parts was approved along with the
revised list of contributors and the tentative allocation of approximate pages
to each part. The number of parts was increased from eight to nine, and the
general scheme of each part was also indicated. The first contribution to be
received was the part on Spiders which, however, far exceeded the pages
allocated, and involved a great deal of condensation and editing. The next
part received in the middle of 1967 was that on fishes and as the arrangement
of this part seemed admirable, it was suggested to the other contributors to
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