XIX. 



SUMMARY OF THE FAUNA OF FUNAFUTI. 



THE fauna of the Atoll of Funafuti, as presented by different 

 writers in the preceding pages, will now be briefly enumerated 

 in systematic order. With that information will also be in- 

 corporated various records, either overlooked in the preparation 

 of the articles referred to, or produced since their publication, 

 and embracing the Archipelago as a whole. 



Prior to the advent of the Expedition, not more than eight 

 species of animals were recorded in literature from Funafuti ; the 

 following lists embrace about eight hundred and fifty entries. 



Though the student of Zoogeography will herein find a more 

 complete account of the life of a Central Pacific Atoll than has 

 previously appeared, he is cautioned not to use it as an exhaustive 

 catalogue. The results of brief sojourn by a few poorly equipped 

 visitors, may indeed present a picture in which the salient features 

 loom obscurely, as in a partly-developed photograph, but nothing 

 more. 



Class MAMMALIA. 

 Mus exulans, Peale. Delphinus, up. 



Class AVES. 



The account of the Avifauna of the atoll by Mr. A. J. North 

 (pp. 79 - 88) can be supplemented by a few additions. Dr. H. 

 Gadow has briefly enumerated the birds shot on Funafuti by Mr. 

 J. S. Gardiner.* To these he adds Carpophaga pistrinaria, a 

 species identified on the wing by his informant. As Mr. Gardiner 

 was not previously acquainted with this species, such an identifi- 

 cation cannot be considered of value, and I accordingly exclude 

 it. In 1897 Mr. W. G. Woolnough, B.Sc., succeeded in shooting 

 an example of the much debated Ellice Island Pigeon, which was 

 subsequently determined by Mr. A. J. North as Globicera pacifica.^ 



The avifauna of the Archipelago will doubtless be found on 

 examination to contain most, if not all, of the twenty-six birds 

 observed in the neighbouring Phomix Group. J At present the 

 revised list drawn up by Mr. A. J. North, consists of the following 

 fifteen species : 



* Gadow Ibis (7), iv., Jan. 1898, p. 45. 



t North Bee. Aust. Mus., iii., June, 1898, p. 86. 



J Lister Proc. Zool. Soc., 1891, p. 300. 



