400 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 
No one will to-day affirm that so brief an account suflices for 
the recognition of this species. Consequently there is every pro- 
bability that it has been, or will be, again named and described to 
the confusion of science. In so numerous and difficult a group, a 
description a page long and several detailed figures are barely 
enough to determine a species in the absence of authentic specimens. 
It would be supposed that this view only required to be stated for 
every worker to endorse it, but for sixty-five years British writers 
have passed over this inadequate account and neglected to repair 
the fault. So recently as last year, Melvill and Standen in treat- 
ing of the shells of Lifu, examined and catalogued this species, 
yet it never occurred to them that a figure and description was 
more urgently needed for J. collaris than for any of the hundred 
novelties they figured and described. 
Great numbers of the species of Adams, Hinds, Smith and 
others are inadequately represented in literature, and cannot be 
recognised without an inspection of the type in London. Either 
therefore no Conchological work should be published except by 
residents of London, which is an absurd proposition, or these 
species must be ignored by naturalists. 
The local conditions under which the Funafuti mollusca occur 
may be briefly sketched. The distinction between the marine and 
terrestrial mollusca, so sharply drawn in temperate zones, fades 
away in the tropics. Ata distance from the sea, in close associa- 
tion with such forms as Stenogyra and Endodonta, occur Littorina, 
Nerita, Truncatella and Melampus, The outer windward beach, 
where the surf sweeps the narrow reef platform, is only accessible 
at intervals when a low tide coincides with calm weather. Here 
the molluscan assemblage bears the mark of incessant buffeting of 
waves, all are characterised by powerful muscular feet which 
adhere to the rock like the sucker foot of the limpet, all have 
thick shells mostly strengthened by knobs or ridges. In the little 
rock pools at the foot of the shingle beach, swarm the gaily painted 
shells of Engina mendicaria, Mitra literata, Conus hebraeus and 
C. ceylonensis. Beyond, where the surf breaks more heavily, are 
several species of Sistrwm, usually nestled in a rock crevice and 
more or less concealed by extraneous growth upon their shells. 
Here also are Purpura armigera and P. hippocastaneum, and on 
the brink of deep water is Z’wrbo setosus. 
It comes as a surprise to a naturalist to find the pelagic fauna 
scarce in this latitude. Dr. Kriimer tells me that he was greatly 
struck by the poverty of the tropical Pacific in this respect. One 
Pteropod, one Heteropod, and a fragment of Janthina were all of 
this class that came under my notice. ; 
The quiet waters of the lagoon prove a richer field for a collector 
than the storm swept ledges of the ocean beach. Just at the 
