22 



R. E. COKER. 



a relatively important habitat for animals consists in the low 

 stone fences that have been built in somewhat rambling fashion 

 over the hills of the main island. Though now falling down in 

 places, these walls harbor numbers of spiders, isopods and 

 insects. The old houses and sheds are likewise inhabited by 

 many insects and spiders. 



Earlier Collecting on Penikese. 

 Although Penikese Island has been visited by naturalists from 

 time to time during the past fifty years, only one paper has been 

 encountered that deals with the fauna above the tide line. It 

 may readily be understood why the pioneers of Agassiz's school 

 had little time for study of the land fauna, engrossed, as they 

 then were, with the revelations of marine life. Yet it seems 

 worth while to quote in full the following communications from 

 members of the original laboratory written fifty years after. 



"I do not think that any one at Penikese listed the land 

 snails, insects or other land animals except birds. We were 

 busy with the novelties of the sea. C. O. Whitman gave most 

 of his time to the birds, and I think had a list. F. H. Snow 

 knew birds also. I made no formal list of the fishes, though I 

 began my studies on them there. I could give an approximate 

 record now. I listed also the Algae, as well as the land plants. 

 Walter Faxon recorded the marine Crustacea, and I made a list 

 of the mollusks. Whether it is in existence now, I do not know. 

 Time works havoc with manuscripts. 



''Very sincerely yours, 



"David Starr Jordan." 



''I do indeed thank you for the pictures of Penikese and the 

 laboratory at Woods Hole. I regret exceedingly that I cannot 

 help you in the matter of Flora and Fauna of that Island. I 

 was too busy with my lecture work to do more than that. The 

 terns' nests with eggs were very abundant and a little work was 

 done on its embryology. 



''Faithfully yours, 



"Edw. S. Morse." 



