Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/219

Rh fact, they can climb as well as a squirrel. In the settlement they utterly destroy all the fruit they can get at, and frequently come into conflict with the fruit-bats on the tops of the papaia-trees." The Frigate-bird (Fregata aquila) forms an article of food for the inhabitants, and is easily captured. A man climbs "into the topmost branches of a high tree near the coast, armed with a pole eight or ten feet long and a red handkerchief. The latter he waves about, at the same time yelling as loud as possible. The birds attracted by the noise and the red colour swoop round in large numbers, when they are knocked down with the long pole." Fresh information is also recorded concerning our old friend the Robber Crab (Birgus latro). "They have a curious habit of often dragging their food long distances before attempting to eat it. I have seen a Crab laboriously pulling a bird's wing up the first inland cliff, half-a-mile or more from the camp whence it had stolen it."

The geographical relations of the fauna and flora are mostly Indo-Malayan, and, although a large number of species are described as endemic, especially among the insects, this is probably owing to the entomological fauna of the neighbouring islands being still imperfectly known. The volume is well illustrated with twenty-two plates, a map, and numerous cuts in the text, and worthily upholds the character of British Museum publications.

I. of this excellent memoir appeared in 1896, and Part VIII., concluding it, was published last year. It altogether relates to the atoll of Funafuti, which was discovered by Capt. Peyster on March 18th, 1819. According to the observations of Capt. Wilkes, it lies in lat. 8° 30' 45" south, long. 179° 13' 30" east,—"a position which may otherwise be described as due north of Fiji, and precisely half way between that and the Equator."

Part I. is devoted to a general account of the atoll, its