MELVILL AND STANDEN: SHELLS FROM LIFU. 85 
published, and, as a step towards this desired end, we venture 
to offer the following list of over 600 species, about twenty or 
twenty-one of which are considered new, this list being based upon 
a very beautiful and interesting collection, rich in individuals as 
well as number of species, formed by the Rev. James and Mrs. 
Hadfield, of Lifu, and coming mostly from that island, with 
some also from the neighbouring island of Uvea. They were 
collected during 1891-3. 
Many of them, it is true, are beach shells, and a little 
worn, but their colours are so untarnished, and condition so 
perfect as to preclude their being considered as otherwise than 
in good condition. The small number of Pelecypoda is re- 
markable ; the bulk of the shells collected are marine Gastro- 
poda, and we may signalize Conus, Mitra, Cyprea, and 
Columbella especially as being very numerous, both in 
individuals and species. We have also included amongst these 
the terrestrial and fluviatile mollusca, collected by Mr. and 
Mrs. Hadfield. 
It is nothing new to be able to pronounce these islands as 
being as rich, almost, in marine Mollusca as the famous Philip- 
pine Islands, or Mauritius, for MM. Crosse and Fischer give 
forty-five species of Mitra and fifty species of Conus, for instance, 
as being found within the New Caledonian region. Many of 
these are of very wide distribution, and it is curious to observe 
how large a number of the forms found in Mauritius are 
here also, some 3,000 miles or more to the eastward, although it 
forms part of the same vast sub-division, the Indo-Pacific 
Province. The late M. Paul Fischer, however, considers the 
Australo-Polynesian region, in which he places these islands, 
distinct from the Indo-Pacific Province of Woodward. These 
sub-divisions, however, must necessarily be somewhat arbitrary, 
and their lines of demarcation optional. ‘The fact remains, that 
in the Marine Mollusca, at all events, there is a close connection 
between the Mauritian and the New Caledonian Fauna. 
We had, at first, in mind the possibility of a general 
