NATURAL COLONISATION METHODS 2B7 



knowledge of some interesting creatures that have gone for 

 ever. 



No good record of the Cocos-Keeling fauna and flora is at 

 present available. The visit of Darwin in 1836 was too short to 

 enable him to make a collection which was at all complete, and 

 during his stay of ten days in April he noted only the rats, 

 the rails and snipe, one small lizard, and 13 species of insects 

 belonging to 8 distinct orders. 



Darwin's observations were quoted by Wallace in his 

 " Island Life " (p. 275), and until the visit of Dr. H. 0. Forbes 

 they remained our sole guide to the conditions of life upon the 

 islands. 



Dr. Forbes visited the islands in 1879, arriving on 

 January 18, and staying till February 9, and he amplified 

 considerably the list made by Darwin ; unfortunately his 

 collections were lost in returning to Java, and so the additional 

 species which he observed have not been specifically recorded.* 



On August 20, 1885, Mr. E. W. Birch, on behalf of the 

 Straits Government, landed and made inquiries about the 

 islands and their inhabitants ; with him, as naturalist, went 

 the Rev. E. C. Spicer. The expedition visited most of the 

 islets, and remained for eight days in the atoll, but in the 

 report (Straits Blue Book, 1885) no light is thrown on the 

 condition of the fauna. 



In succeeding Blue Books are scattered notes, made by the 

 Commissioners, on some of the most striking features of the 

 atoll fauna, but most of this information is mere interpreta- 

 tion of local legend, and is of no value. 



Dr. H. B. Guppy visited the islands in 1888, and has 

 written an excellent account of their physical features in the 

 Scottish Geographical Mazagine (vol. v., 1889, pp. 281, 457, and 

 569), but he has not, so far as I am aware, published any 

 description of the fauna. 



I collected the insects continuously throughout my stay of 

 15 months, and I am convinced that nothing short of a fairly 

 prolonged residence, even in such a tiny place as is the atoll, 



* "A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago," 1885. 



