ANIMALS 75 



upwards of eighty different species of fish from 

 Rotuma,* as well as for a large variety of Crustacea and 

 other free-living animals. The animals, after a few 

 days, find out such heaps, and make them their homes, 

 going out with the flood in search of food, but returning 

 with the ebb. They are then easily caught in a large 

 basket of palm-leaves, which is kept open by a few 

 masses of branching coral, and is placed, mouth open, 

 in the opposite end of the heap to that which the col- 

 lector is turning back. Some of the brilliantly coloured 

 fish resist such a device, and the author knows no way 

 of catching them save by a bare fish-hook of small 

 size, smeared with cuttle-fish ink, which has already 

 been mixed with patchouli or other strong-smelling 

 scent. He has found this efficacious in the crevices 

 of coral reefs, the line being swept in and out by the 

 tide. As to the advisability of the inexperienced col- 

 lector, who does not himself know the orders and 

 divisions of these groups, and is not especially interested 

 in them, gathering them up, the author of this article 

 expresses no further opinion. The Nudibranchs and 

 Isopleura, the smallest Crustaceans, and the minute 

 shells from the sand, will be most profitable ; while 

 such Crinoids as may be found should certainly be 

 kept. As a matter of actual experience, two-thirds 

 of the time even of a trained collector, desirous of 

 securing all forms of life on the shore, will be occupied 

 in catching and preserving the larger members of these 

 orders. The breaking up by the hand of masses of 

 the more mossy seaweeds into a bottle, the larger frag- 

 ments being picked out, often yields an abundance of 

 small Crustacea and worms. The result is a dirty- 



* Of 1 08 species of fish collected by the author from this 

 island's shores all were known, and only about 2 per cent, of 

 the species from other island groups were new. 



