INTRODUCTION 



I HAVE endeavoured to give in these pages an account of a 

 very restricted and very isolated piece of land. 



I have attempted to put on record as fully as possible its 

 history, its physical conditions, and the state of its Flora and 

 Fauna. 



There are many reasons why this work should be done, and 

 why, to-day, a census should be taken of the forms of life which 

 have found a footing upon this tiny speck of land surrounded 

 by a vast waste of ocean. 



Before 1825 the isolation of the place was complete; for 

 the next eighty years it was scarcely broken ; but to-day the 

 intercourse with the greater world is on the increase, and with 

 this freer intercourse comes change — change in many unlooked- 

 for ways. 



Steamship routes open up new roads for animal emigrants ; 

 and nothing is more strange than the manner in which the 

 balance of Nature may be upset in these isolated spots by the 

 advent of what is apparently an inconsiderable addition to the 

 Flora or Fauna. If any argument were needed for the utility 

 of compiling uninteresting lists of the forms of life to be found 

 upon the atoll, the story of Christmas Island would suffice. 

 Were it not for the careful record of the Flora and Fauna of 

 that island, made in IS 9 7 by Dr. C. W.Andrews, a remarkable 

 page in Nature's story would be lost for ever. 



In the case of Cocos-Keeling it is fortunate that no less 

 than three naturalists have left records of the state of the atoll 

 over a fairly long period, and the accounts of Darwin, Forbes, 

 and Guppy form invaluable landmarks. 



