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Show 530 MR. J. J. LISTER ON THE NATURAL [Dec. 4, If they were approached, they brandished their second pair of legs in a threatening manner as though accustomed to be masters of the situation. They were, of course, perfectly harmless. I watched one of them at a tide-pool on the shore apparently replenishing the store of water in the branchial cavities. The movement was similar to that of eating. The end of one of the large chelae was dipped in the water and lifted towards the mouth, where it was touched by one of the palps and the moisture passed on, whilst the chela descended for a further supply. IX. CONCLUSION. The collections from Christmas Island are necessarily very incomplete. The visit of the ' Egeria' only lasted ten days, and owing to the thickness of the bush and the difficult nature of the ground on the sides of the island, a comparatively small part of it was traversed. Among the Invertebrate animals and the plants, especially, many species remain to be discovered. Incomplete as the collections are, however, there can be no doubt that the island is very poor in species. Thus five kinds of Mammals, seven of Land-birds, four of Lizards, and one Snake, make up the list of Vertebrate animals of the existence of which evidence was obtained. The most striking feature is the peculiarity of the fauna. Of the mammals, three out of the four which were collected are peculiar species, the other a peculiar variety of a species which extends from the Himalayas to Java. All the land-birds are peculiar to the island, though some, as has been pointed out, approach their allies in the Archipelago very closely. Four out of the five reptiles are peculiar. Turning to the Invertebrate groups, the same proportion of new forms is met with, though here many families have not been sufficiently studied in the Archipelago to justify the conclusion that a new form is a peculiar one. Of the land-shells five out of eleven species are new, as are six out of ten of the Lepidoptera. Sixteen of the Beetles have been referred to their genera, and six to species, of which six five are new and one constitutes a new genus. Of the other insects, seventeen out of twenty species which have been worked out are new. One of three species of Chilopoda is new, as are both the species of Diplopoda (Millipedes), one belonging to a new genus. Three kinds of Spiders belong to known species, while a small land-crab is new. The affinities of the Christmas Island fauna and flora are of great interest in relation to the sharp line of separation between the Indo- Malay and Austro-Malay subregions, which, especially as regards their mammals and birds, divides the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The presence of three terrestrial placental mammals appears at first sight to connect the island with the Indian region, and the Shrew-Mouse, a variety, as Mr. Dobson points out, of a species |
