XIX. Summary of the fauna of Funafuti
Abstract
The fauna of the Atoll of Funafuti, as presented by different writers in the preceding pages, will now be briefly enumerated in systematic order. With that information will also be incorporated various records, either overlooked in the preparation of the articles referred to, or produced since their publication, and embracing the Archipelago as a whole.
Prior to the advent of the Expedition, not more than eight species of animals were recorded in literature from Funafuti; the following lists embrace about eight hundred and fifty entries.
Though the student of Zoogeography will herein find a more complete account of the life of a Central Pacific Atoll than has previously appeared, he is cautioned not to use it as an exhaustive catalogue. The results of brief sojourn by a few poorly equipped visitors, may indeed present a picture in which the salient features loom obscurely, as in a partly-developed photograph, but nothing more.
