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draft their parts on the same lines. A meeting of contributors was held in
February 1968, to review progress and to consider the question of
illustrations.
As the work progressed, numerous difficulties became apparent. The
available material was scattered over many books and journals, and there
was no time to undertake fresh surveys or inquiries for this volume.
3.Mode of presentation.—In the India Gazetteer 60 to 70 pages are devoted
to the Chapter on ' Zoology' or ' Fauna'. The references to fauna in the
general State volumes of Bombay, Central Provinces and Hyderabad were
somewhat limited; and so were the references in most district volumes. In
presenting this volume, it is realised that there are many gaps in our
knowledge of the Fauna of Maharashtra, and that there are many errors and
omissions in the material. The main purpose has, however, been to present to
the reader without undue delay all the material that could be readily
collected, so that readers may draw attention to the lacuna and suggest
improvements. Each part dealing with a group of animal life is arranged
broadly into three sections: the first being introductory, the second giving the
taxonomic list of the animal forms and the third giving short notes on some
important species found in the State of Maharashtra. As regards Marathi
names, some have been given but as is to be expected, there are no Marathi
names for many species, and among names that are current, there is a great
deal of confusion, because the same species is known by different names and
the same Marathi word may be used to denote different species in different
areas. In order to avoid confusion, Latin names have been used in the text. In
the introduction to his book ‘A CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING ANIMALS'
Lord Rothschild states that innumerable examples could be given of
"confusion by the use of vernacular as opposed to Latin names. Where I live,
the hedgehog, Erinaceus, is sometimes called an urchin. Where I often work,
an urchin is called Echinus, But members of the orderEchinoida(sea
urchins), to which Echinus belongs, are also called sea hedgehogs, egg
urchins, sea eggs, egg-fish, buttonfish, sea thistles, needle shells, chestnuts,
burrs, spikes, zarts, porcupines and whore's eggs”. It is however useful to the
general reader to know the Marathi names of the more common species, and
FAUNA 9