4 Bernicc P. Bishop Museum — Bulletin 



Another publication having reference to the natural history of this group 

 of islands was issued by Emmanuel Rougier in 1914 under the title "He 

 Christmas, South Seas"," This booklet of 158 pages includes a discussion 

 of the topography, climate and natural resources of the island, and a con- 

 siderable amount of information regarding its flora and fauna. 



In July 1913 a party from Honolulu, including Hon. Henry E. Cooper, 

 the owner of Palmyra Island, Dr. C. M. Cooke, Jr., conchologist of the 

 Bishop Museum, and Professor Joseph F. Rock, botanist of the College 

 of Hawaii, proceeded to Palmyra with the purpose in view of exploring 

 the atoll and investigating the fauna and flora found on and about the 

 numerous islets of the group. 



As a result of this expedition a large amount of biological material was 

 collected and turned over to the Bishop Museum, and Professor Rock, in 

 co-operation with other botanists, published a paper entitled "Palmyra 

 Island with a description of its flora".* In this account brief historical 

 and general descriptions of Palmyra are followed by a systematic discus- 

 sion of the flora of the atoll. The paper is well illustrated with numerous 

 photographs taken by the author and is accompanied by a chart, revised 

 from two older ones, of the entire group of islets forming the atoll as it 

 was observed by members of the expedition of 1913. 



In the paper by Professor Rock, which is primarily a botanical report, 

 some reference is also made to the animal life of Palmyra. The fauna of 

 the shallow water about the islands is mentioned in a very general way 

 and more specific, but l)rief. consideration is given to birds, insects and land 

 crustaceans. 



More recently, in a ])ublication entitled "Some shoal-water corals from 

 Murray Island (Australia), Cocos- Kneeling Islands, and Fanning Island",^ 

 T. W. Vaughan gives consideration to 26 species and i variety of corals 

 collected at Fanning Island, and points out the importance of this locality 

 as a connecting link in the distribution of corals between regions south of 

 the equator and Hawaii. 



The four papers cited a1)0ve are. so far as I have been able to discover, 

 the only ones publislied having direct reference to tlic natural history of 

 this group of atolls. 



An additional lot of crustaceans have recently l)ecn presented to the 

 Bishop Museum by Dr. H. E. Lyon, botanist of the Hawaiian Sugar 

 Planters' Association. These specimens, chiefly amphipods and isopods. 

 saved from marine algae collected by Professor Rock at Palmyra Island 



'Rougier, Emmanuel, He Christmas, .South Seas, Brioudc, France, L. Watel. 1914. 

 * College of Hawaii, Bull. No. 4, 1916. 



' Papers from the Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, vol. 9, pp. 49-234, 74 pis. and 2 figs. 1918. 



