DERIVATION OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA 417 



Chapter XV. 

 Composition, distribution and relationships of the Fauna. 



Indigenous vertebrates, birds excepted, lacking. The principal occupation in 

 the island is farming, cattle and sheep are plentiful and roam over the island 

 which, with the exception of outlying rocks, has lost its primitiveness. As a con- 

 sequence of the changes in the plant cover, particularly the extermination of the 

 indigenous trees, also the fauna was impoverished, while through the introduction 

 of useful plants, numerous weeds and all kinds of goods many foreign insects 

 and other invertebrates made their appearance, as the lists below will show. As 

 little research work has been done hitherto, many more species will probably be 

 found, indigenous as well as introduced. 



Aves (775). 



Sterna lunata Peale. Molucc, Polyn., Fiji, Hawaii. 



Ajious stolidus (L.) imicoior Nordmann. Sala y Gomez. The typical species 

 trop.-subtrop., but not observed on the coast of America. 



Procelsterna coerulea (Benn.) skottsber^gi Loennb. Typical coerulea on Christmas 

 I., 4 other subspecies scattered over the Pacific. 



Gygis alba (Sparrm.) j'oyana Matthews. With the typical species wide-spread 

 trop. 



Pterodroma heraldica Salvin paschae Loennb. The typical species S.W. Pacific. 



Sula cyanops (Sundev.). Trop. seas throughout the world. 



According to the natives some other sea birds occur, but there are no land 

 birds. 



Oligochaeta [i8i). 



Pheretina califoriiica (Kbg). Introduced. Reported from Calif., Mex., Madeira 

 and Lower Egypt. 



Araneida {^22). 



Scytodes liigtibris Thorell. Burma, N. Caled., perhaps all over Oceania. 



Pholciis phalangioides Fuessli. Eur., now spread over a large part of the globe. 



Theridium tepidariorum C. Koch. Cosmop. 



+ Tetragnata Paschae Berland. A large cosmop. genus. 



Corinna cetrata Simon. N. Caled. 



Hasarius Adansoni Audouin. Cosmop. 



Plexippus Paykulli Audouin. Cosmop. 



Possibly all the spiders are adventitious (Berland I.e.). Two species were 

 determined as to genus only. 



27 ~ 557857 The Nat. His*, of Juan Fernandez and Easter Isl. Vol. I 



