ZOOLOGICAL NOTES FROM SYDNEY. 351 



Crab was a small "Sea-Mouse"; also in parts, where the husk 

 was beginning to disintegrate, were several small brownish-black 

 Amphipoda. The discovery of this current-borne Barringtonia 

 is not by any means a unique one, though perhaps the finding of 

 so many tenants is, as cocoa-nuts and other objects of in- 

 terest are continually being found along our coast, which have 

 been brought from the same far-distant source — the South Sea 

 Islands. I have many times collected, at different points along 

 the coast of New South Wales, small pieces of pumice and 

 volcanic cinders. These have been continually washed up for a 

 considerable number of years at least, as is amply borne out by 

 the fact that they are found deep down in the grass-grown sand- 

 dunes, whenever an opening is made (artificially or otherwise). 

 The most interesting thing to the zoologist is that this flotsam 

 carries with it occasionally — as I can personally bear witness — 

 such animals as tubicolous annelids, and sometimes small speci- 

 mens of coral. It is almost impossible to conceive what vast 

 changes might be wrought, or what additions might be made, to 

 the fauna or flora of an island lying in the course of the current 

 which carries along this flotsam. 



While on this subject I might mention some other ways by 

 which Polynesian animals are transported to our waters. It will 

 at once be self-evident that ships' bottoms are a very fertile agency, 

 as there is a large amount of trade between this port and the islands 

 of the South Pacific. Thus it is not very hard to understand 

 how it is that fairly large specimens of Madrepores should have 

 been found growing in Port Jackson, where they were certainly 

 not pre-existent. Now, turning to the land-animals : our imports 

 from the South Seas consist mainly of copra, pine-apples, bananas, 

 cocoa-nuts, palm-leaf fans, hats, and native matting, and each of 

 these brings along its quota of migrants. I had at one time 

 brought to me a prettily marked Snake, alive, which was curled 

 up in a bunch of bananas, and others have occasionally been 

 found. But the three last-mentioned articles should perhaps 

 claim priority for the number of Arthropoda — in the way of Cock- 

 roaches, Spiders, Centipedes, small Coleoptera, &c. — which they 

 bring. On the other hand, I have reason to believe that many 

 animals have been introduced from this country into the islands 

 by means of the same agency — the ships. 



During last year (1899), on several of my excursions round 



