With C. Hedley’s 
Compliments, 
[XVIT.] 
THE MOLLUSCA. 
Part I.— Gasteropoda. 
By CHaries HEDLEY. 
Many of the introductory remarks which prefaced collections 
previously dealt with, apply with equal force to the Mollusca. 
Little was known of the Mollusca of the Ellice Group prior to our 
Expedition. With one exception, none of the naturalists—Dana, 
Whitmee, Woodford, Finsch—who have been to the archipelago, 
gathered any shells. The exception being Dr. Ed. Graefte, who 
visited most of the atolls in the interest of the Godeffroy Museum. 
The land shells he procured are described by Mousson.* <A few 
other animals described by German authors from this group were 
probably also collected by him. 
The poverty of the fauna of the atoll, compared with that of 
any continental area lying under corresponding latitudes, such as 
Queensland, New Guinea, or the Melanesian Plateau, again asserts 
itself. Whole groups, the Brachiopoda and the Polyplacophora, 
are missing, giving to the fauna an unsymmetrical aspect. 
Especially significant is the absence of Mollusca with large eggs 
such as Nautilus, Melo, or Voluta from this drifted fauna, In 
many cases the Funafuti shells are smaller than the usual stature 
of their respective species. Harper Pease has remarked that the 
marine Gasteropoda of the Paumotus are in general dwarfed in 
comparison with those of Tahiti.j Shipley mentions that speci- 
mens of Gephyrean worms from Funafuti were considerably 
smaller than representatives of the same species from Rotuma. { 
Poor though this fauna be, I have to apologise for the following 
inadequate account of it. Thorough search would probably result 
in multiplying the known total three or four times. My com- 
mission embraced the study of the Atoll as a whole. Although ° 
the Mollusca alone would have afforded occupation for the entire 
time of an investigator, yet Ethnology, and Botany, and other 
branches of Zoology equally claimed my attention. On my return 
the mass of material, molluscan and otherwise, together with the 
* Mousson--—Journ. de Conch. xxi. 1873, pp. 102 - 109. 
+ Pease—Am. Journ. Conch. iv. 1868, p. 109. 
ft Shipley—Proc. Zool. Soc, 1898, p. 468. 
