[XV.] 



THE MADEEPOKARIA. 



BY THOMAS WHITELEGGE, 

 Zoologist, Australian Museum. 



Mr. C. Hedley furnishes the following note : 

 " For one who has surveyed the wealth of life as developed on the 

 great coral reefs of Queensland, New Guinea, or New Caledonia, 

 the chief impression of the coral reef of Funafuti is its poverty. 

 In a single tide one could collect more genera and species on any 

 of the former reefs than an industrious search of several weeks 

 would yield from the latter. Neither is the poverty of species 

 compensated for by an abundance of individuals. 



"At the first glance over the windward reef flat, no living corals 

 would probably be seen, but an exploration of the deep cracks 

 and pools near the outer edge would usually reveal a few Astrcva, 

 Porites, and others, sheltered from the blows of the surf. 



"A better field for observation is provided by the small reefs 

 which stud the lagoon. Two or three of these, just in front of 

 the village, and from a quarter to half a mile from the shore, 

 yielded much of the material now dealt with. 



"On approaching a coral reef the first glimpse a naturalist usually 

 has of his quest are the great hemispherical masses of some Astrean 

 coral, dimly seen through the shoaling water, studding the sea floor. 

 If the boat passes a submarine ledge, from its face are sure to 

 project the large basin or bracket-shaped corallia of Montipora, 

 sometimes in clusters like a group of huge sea mushrooms. Jump- 

 ing overboard in shallow water he is likely to step on a flat 

 tabular mass of pale purple, whose corallites are too small to be 

 distinguished in the water. Applying hammer and chisel, he will 

 find that at his first venture he has struck the hardest, toughest, 

 and most unbreakable thing on the whole reef, a Porites block. 

 From the Madrepora bush beside it his difficulty, on the contrary, 

 is to convey his samples ashore intact. The stout limbs of red, 

 yellow, or green Pocillopora or Stylophora snap easily ; while a 

 skull-shaped mass of Astrcea will split along the grain. A fragile 

 little coral is the Pocillopora ccespitosa, which grows in dainty 

 little pink tufts here and there among the stones. Fungicide 

 were very uncommon on Funafuti ; I only picked up one alive 

 and saw a few others dead on the western side of the atoll. 



