On ancient Indian maps the mountainous northern frontier is referred to as the Mahalangur-Himal, which may be translated as the mountains of the big monkeys. In view of recent reports one naturally wonders whether the big monkeys referred o t were the large langurs (Semnopithecus), which are known to ascend to the hills to altitudes of 12,000 feet, or to something still larger, which ranges to even higher altitudes.

Any news of wild life preservation (or lack of it) in India, as in other parts of South Asia, must be examined against the background of a young democratic and liberal administration which has not sought to restrict the issue of licenses for firearms and which has encouraged rapid development and industrialization. Those outside the sanctuaries have become considerably human population and spread of villages and agriculture, and an equal increase in numbers of domestic cattle and buffaloes with consequent opening up of new areas for grazing.

This report deals with Cervus eldi eldi McClelland, 1842, the Manipur (India) subspecies of a very beautiful deer which is only found in the south-western portion of the Logtak Lake in Manipur—a State of the Indian Union. In recent years it has become very rare, and for its preservation it became evident that more information about its numbers, habits, habitat and so on was needed. This survey, sponsored by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and approved of by the Indian Board for Wild Life, attempts to supply the required information, and makes recommendations for ensuring the continued survival of this sub-species.

The Leathery Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, the largest living Chelonian, is a creature of great antiquity—a survival from the time of the dinosaurs. It is the only representative of the suborder Athecae and is distinguished from other turtles by the absence of a true shell covered by large plates; it has instead a mosaic of small bony platelets embedded in its skin.

In Borneo and the surrounding islands competition by introduced faunas has not proved a significant factor affecting the survival of endemic species. Without exception, any threat has, in the past century and more, been invariably and directly attributable to human agency. Man, for instance, is the only predator of the Sumatran rhinoceros, Orang-utan, Clouded leopard, Argus and Bulwer's pheasant, White-bellied Sea-eagle and Island Megapode, which are among the forms most severely threatened at the moment.