Information on the present population and status of the Indian Wild Ass Equus hemionus khur Lesson, 1827, is scanty. For this reason I was prompted to undertake this brief fact-finding survey, especially as South African Horse Sickness had been reported in that part of India recently. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources sponsored my expedition, and the World Wildlife Fund very kindly paid my travelling expenses from the eastern part of India to the furthest western tip of the country.

This is the second report which Mr. E. P. Gee has made upon the situation of the wild life of Nepal. His first, restricted to the Great Indian Rhinoceros, was made in 1959 at the behest of the Survival Service Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

This visit took place from August to October, 1962, and its aim was threefold: first, to see and observe large African mammals in their natural environment; second, to visit places where research into the ecology and breeding biology of these animals is being carried out and, third, to become familiar with the conditions and requirements for field work in Africa.

In wild life affairs all licensing systems, be they the licensing of hunting, capture, sale of trophies, or anything else, should have the primary purpose of conservation. Assuming that any trade at all in wild animals is justifiable the country concerned should decide the maximum number of animals of each kind which it can spare and may then charge as much as possible for each of them. The basic purpose is to limit the number shot or captured to that which the stock can stand.

This article summarizes some of the results of a visit paid to the West Nile District of Uganda in July-August, 1962, with the object of studying the White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) in its native habitat. Its conclusions are based both upon official departmental reports and upon information received privately from officers of the Uganda Game and Agriculture Departments, from residents in the West Nile District and from others, to whom individual acknowledgment is made below.