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Show 1874.] DR. GTJNTHER ON THE FAUNA OF SAVAGE ISLAND. 295 thanks are due to Professor Burmeister, of Buenos Ayres, for promptly furnishing me with sexed and dated specimens of both the South-American species, and to Professor Newton for the loan of Swainson's (supposed) type of L. phaocephalus from the Cambridge Museum. 6. A Contribution to the Fauna of Savage Island. By Dr. A. G U N T H E R , V.P.Z.S. [Received April 1, 1874.] (Plate XLV\) Professor Rolleston, F.R.S., has submitted to my examination a small collection of animals made at Niue or Savage Island, a locality rarely touched by vessels, and then for a very short time only. Of the more recent accounts of visitors to the island, I refer especially to the two following : - T . H. Hood, ' Notes of a Cruise in H.M.S. ' Fawn' in the Western Pacific in the year 1862 ' (Edinb. 1863, 8vo), pp. 9-27; and J. L. Brenchley, ' Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. 'Curacoa' among the South-Sea Islands in 1865' (Lond. 1873, 8vo), pp. 16-35. The island is about 40 miles in circumference, an upraised coral plateau, nearly of an equal elevation, about 250 feet above the level of the sea in its highest part. Vegetation is abundant and varied ; and some portions of the island are well wooded. The notes of the two authors mentioned are of a rather general character as far as the fauna is concerned. Hood states (p. 25) :-" The fauna and flora are on a limited scale, and similar to those of the larger islands to the north-west. Doves and Pigeons abound ; and the large cocoa-nut-eating Crab (Birgus latro) is very common and highly esteemed as an article of food by the natives." Brenchley mentions " a great Bat" which he saw flying at a remarkable height, " one indigenous mammifer, a small rodent of a size between a water-rat and and a mouse," "a few birds, among them pigeons or doves of a green colour, parrots, a pretty little green bird with white feathers under the tail, a small martin or swallow," " a great number of pretty little lizards, some handsome butterflies, a large species of spider, and a grasshopper, three species of small land-shells." The isolated position of the island, which is distant four degrees of longitude from the nearest point of the Tonga group, and five of latitude from the Navigator's Islands, renders its fauna and flora objects of particular interest; and I have no doubt that Prof. Rolleston and his correspondent, the Rev. Mr. Lawes, will be encouraged by the result of the examination of the present small collection to obtain a complete set of the indigenous animals and plants. The only mammal in the collection is a small species of Pteropus. It appears to be identical with the species figured by Quoy and Gaimard in the * Voyage of the Astrolabe' under the name of Pt. ton-ganus. Coloration, size, and habitat seem to point to identity |
