Bulletin of Museum of Comparative Zoology 52

#/ ^^ ^^^^/f- BULLETIN OF THE ^'^ /MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY HARVARD COLLEGE, IN CAMBRIDGE VOL LIL CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 1908-1910 U S A University Press : John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, \ ^7 U S A CONTENTS No — Reports Page on the Scientific Eesnlts of the Expedition to the Eastern Tropical Pacific, in charge of Alexander Agassiz, bv the U S Fish Com- mission Steamer "Albatross," from October, 1904, to March, 1905, Lieut Commander L M Garrett, U S N., Commanding XII The Reptiles By Samuel Garman (1 Plate.) Jnne, 1908 of Easter Island No — Reports on the Scientific Results of the p]xpedition to the Eastern Alexander Agassiz, by the U vS Fish Commission Steamer " Albatross," from October, 1904, to March, 1905, Lieut Tropical Pacific, in charge of Commander L M Garrett, U (5 Plates.) No S N., Atelaxja, a new Suborder of of July, 1908 — Notes Commanding XIII The Characters By Edwin Chapin Starrs Fishes 15 By Glover M Allen on Chiroptera (1 Plate.) July, " 1908 No — The W True No Fossil Cetacean, in charge of 23 By Frederick 63 ou the Scientific Results of Tropical Pacific, Gibbes September, 1908 (3 Plates.) — Reports Dorudon serratus tlie Expedition to the Eastern Alexander Agassiz, by the U S Fish Com- mission Steamer "Albatross," from October, 1904, to March, 1905, Lieut XV Ueber die L M Garrett, U S N., Commanding Anatomie und systematische Stellung von Bathysciadiu.m, Lepetella, und Aduisonia Von Johann Thiele (2 Plates.) Octoher, 1908 Commander No — Zoological liesults of the Thayer Brazilian Expedition 79 Preliminary new Genera and Species of Tetragonoptekid Characins By Carl H Eicknmann December, 1908 Descriptions of No — Notes on n R By March, 1909 of new Birds from Thater and Outram Bangs May, 1909 No Echinoderms Indo-Pacific 91 by the U S Fish Com- March, 1905, Lieut XVIII Amphipoda to 143 CONTENTS iv Page — Notes on the Phytoplankton of Victoria Nyanza, East Africa By C H OsTENPELD (2 Plates.) July, 1909 No No 10 11 — Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition to the Eastern Alexander Agassiz, Tropical Pacific, in charge of 1159 by the U S Fish Com- mission Steamer "Albatross," from October, 1904, to March, 1905, Lieut XIX Commander L M Garrett, U S N., Commanding By Leon J Cole (3 Plates.) August, 1909 No 12 — Cruise of tiaridae) No 13 U S Fisheries Schooner the Stream during July, — Reports on the B 183 "Grampus" in the Gulf new Medusa (Bytho- Description of a 1908, with By Hbnrv Bioelow (1 Plate.) August, 1909 19o Expedition to the Eastern Scientific Results of the Alexander Agassiz, by Tropical Pacific, in charge of Pycnogonida the U S Fish Com- mission Steamer " Albatross," from October, 1904, to March, 1905, Lieut Commander Ceratium No 14 Garrett, U S N., Commanding XX Mutations in By Charles Atwood Kofoid (4 Plates.) September, 1909 L M — Mylostomid Palatal Dental Plates By C R Eastman 211 December, "-^S^ 1909 No 15 — Notes May, 1910 (2 Plates.) No 16 on the Herpetology of Jamaica — Decapod '-^'l Crustaceans where by Mr Thomas Barbour (6 Plates.) No.l7 — The Plates.) By Thomas Barbour collected in in Dutch East India and By Mary 190«-1907 J else- Rathbun September, 1910 Echinoderms of -"^OS Peru By Hubert Lyman Clark (14 319 October, 1910 Corrigenda No 15, page 286 and explanation to Plate Page 287 and explanation for Plate 2, Fig 2, read Plate 2, Fig to Plate for Plate 2, Fig 1, read Plate 2, Fig Museum Bulletin of the of Comparative Zoology at harvard college Vol LII No REPORTS ON THE SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION TO THE EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC, IN CHARGE OF ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, BY THE U S FISH COMMISSION STEAMER "ALBATKOSS," FROM OCTOBER, 1904, TO MARCH, 1905, LIEUT COMMANDER L M GARRETT, U S N., COMMANDING xn THE REPTILES OF EASTER ISLAND Br Samuel Garman With One Plate [Published by Permission of Geoege M Botees, U Fish Commissioner.] CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S.A.: PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM June, 1908 No — Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition to the Eastern Tropical Pacific^ in charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U S Fish Commission Steamer " Albatross,'''' from October, 1904, to March, 1905, Lieutenant Commander L M Garrett, U S N., Commanding XII The Reptiles of Easter Island By Samuel Garman To give an approximately complete idea of the Herpetology of Easter Island list necessary to consider and to introduce provisionally into our it is number of species a of marine tortoises and a sea serpent, which range throughout Polynesia and the tropical and the temperate portions of the Pacific and the Indian oceans, but which have not yet been taken or known directly from the island by the scientist The snake has the better claim to attention, having been secured a short distance The from the shores and positively determined tortoises, of which our knowledge depends wholly upon tradition or other evidence of the natives, cannot be satisfactorily identified, would add two species of small ence of which capture is From if they might be, they This leaves as the main dependence in or the evolution of the fauna this study and or nothing in answer to questions relating to the origin little asserted lizards, by the a third and larger one, the exist- islanders, having, if the material gathered it it exists, escaped appears that these lizards were not originally derived from the nearer islands to the westward, in the direction of Samoa and the the far northwestward material We Fijis, but from the Hawaiian Islands to can go no farther until possessed of more That the Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island may both have obtained the species from some other that we have as yet no proof, while species from the two to the other being localities are it locality is possible, can be said that the markedly direct but of affinities of the Drifting from one put aside as improbable, Hawaiian lizards may have ; bulletin: museum of comparative zoology been carried to Easter Island in several ways; they may have been landed from some vessel passing, toward the straits or to round the Cape, on way its to the Atlantic, — as we suppose some of the same species have been taken to both western and eastern coasts of South America, — more recent than the in times pancy, or the saurians arrival of the islanders may have been brought with to determine the original of the people from racial characteristics and language, or from Ethnologists having failed, so came home now in occuwhen they the natives far, their art as seen in the sculptures, and tablets, etc., the hypothesis is permissible, from even so attenuated a thread of evidence as that sup- plied by the when reptiles, that Beyond them this it men came the the lizards came with might be possible to account at once for the and for the lack of energy and of art in the present inhabitants of Easter Island by a further supposition that the makers of the images and the tablets were swept away by the latest eruption of the volcano, and that their successors with the lizards are the result of a subsequent migration from the Hawaiian undiflferentiated condition of the species Islands or thereabout, an indirect route for the reptiles, as for man, from central Polynesia At the first the study of the naturalist climate; glance various features of Easter Island combine to such are position, origin, isolation, extent, diversity, and : it lies near the middle of the South Pacific (Lat 27° 10' S Lon 109° 26' W.) other land ; plains, hills, A tation it make fauna appear to be one of particular attractiveness to its ; it originated as a volcano, without connection with has an area of about thirty -four square miles and mountains (to 1700 feet), and it sense of disappointment comes upon one his investigations he realizes how much is ; possesses it covered with vege- when in the course of the island lacks age, that birth its has been too recent for the evolution of species and varieties in a fauna of its own, when he decides that what^ is possessed it has borrowed in times not very remote and that he must direct his attention to the route by which it was brought Possibly more than one start was made by flora and fauna to be destroyed by later activity of the expiring volcano at any rate eruptive evidences confine the natural history within com- ; paratively narrow limits of time new; it contributes to knowledge tained to some other island, All of the literary history is decidedly begins with Davis's alleged discovery, 1686, though the named it, is islet not positively located and Eoggewein, April 7, little may have he per- 1722, discovered the and furnished a general description with some infor- GARMAN : THE REPTILES OF EASTER ISLAND mation concerning people and customs That the early -writers saynothing about reptiles is not to be interpreted as if owing to nonexistence but merely to non-observance Why repeated here several of their statements are ; the tortoises should have escaped their notice so completely does not appear; shells and skulls are always in evidence where tortoises are consumed Captain James Cook, 1774, in his second many voyage, gives In and details relating to the island inhabitants its had become worse regard to the forests the condition apparently His men saw "not an animal of any sort and but very few birds." " They have a few tame fowls, such as cocks and hens, small but well They have also rats, which, it seems, they eat ; for I saw a man tasted with some dead ones in his hand them, giving me were hardly any ; and sea birds but few fish; at least Land birds there men of war, tropic, these were, ; coast seemed not we could catch none with hook and we saw amongst the little The birds, nodies, tern, &c and egg and he seemed unwilling to part with ; understand they were for food to Vol natives." line, I, it La p 288 abound with to and was but very Perouse, 1786, made additions to the fauna in the sheep, goats, and pigs he says " : La m'a paru peu poissonneuse, cote les comestibles de ces habitans sont tires du regne He left que presque tons et je crois vegetal." Beechey, who visited the island in 1825, like his predecessors, found the people and their sculptures of first interest "allied in language He decided that the natives were and customs to many islands South Sea," in the in none of which were such images He tells us there was not a quadruped on the island in Roggewein's time, and adds, "nor has any one except the rat ever been seen there," Vol the island is said to have "abounded in "When discovered, woods and forests, and palm I, p branches were presented as emblems of peace 56 ; but fifty years after- wards, when visited by Captain Cook, there were no traces of them What known is of the nothing satisfactory on fauna In Thomson's narrative, herpetology the 1891 in the Smithsonian Eeport for 1889, there nence This preceded From it it Of animals there were on the author, neat cattle, few large and wild is matter of more perti- those which we get a better idea of the plant and animal life has more general article left." through the early literature contains rough cats, information than island at this little horses, time, according to this many sheep, some dogs, and some domestic some fowls rats, a " There are no quadrupeds peculiar to the island except several varieties of rodents." No petrels, gulls, small land birds, "only the tropic or man-of-war bird, and a variety of aquatic birds." The following concerning bulletin: museum of comparative zoology the fishes quoted in contrast with the statements of Cook and is La Perouse " Fish has always been the principal means of support for : the islanders, and the natives are exceedingly expert in the various The methods of capturing them bonito, albicore, ray, dolphin, and porpoise are the off-shore fish most highly esteemed, but the swordfish and shark are also eaten Rock-fish are caught in abundance and are remarkably sweet and good Small fish of many varieties are caught Eels of immense size along the shore, and the flying-fish are common are caught in the cavities and crevices of the rock-bound coast Fresh- water fish are reported to exist in the lakes inside of the craters, but did not see any Of of them." are the statements concerning tortoises why he classes are plentiful and are highly esteemed them is The author does not explain ; at certain seasons a The constantly maintained on the sand beach a prominent place in the traditions, and watch frequently represented in it is notice occurs in the translations of the tablets Great King on the land the shell, with fish power of the turtles, fish, scales, He for turtle occupies hieroglyphics and also appears on the sculptured rocks." the and " Turtles his fishes rather than his reptiles them with we particular interest in the present writing : " What power Other has tlie has the power to clothe the turtles in hard and protects every living thing All hail tlie enables us to overcome the defense of the Great King who and Elsewhere all reptiles." his three hundred, arriving subsisted for the first three on the months it island, entirely is said that Hotu-Matua from land to the eastward, upon fish, turtle, and the And in the nuts of a creeping plant found growing along the ground account of Machaa's arrival with six companions, two months before Hotu-Matua, we learn that on the second day after arriving this party found a turtle on the beach near Anekena, and one of the men was At the point killed by a blow of its flipper in trying to turn it over Ahuakapu, Mr Thomson says, "Upon the extreme point we found another one of those round towers, built for the purpose of observing Concerning other reptiles an the movements of turtles on the beach." item is given on page 459 the rocks ; we saw nothing would : " Small lizards are frequently seen the natives claim that a large variety of it No snakes exist." is Small reptiles, find food in the several varieties of butterflies, the troublesome flies, the fleas that were worse than the among not uncommon, but flies, no doubt, myriads of the mosquitoes about the water tanks, the cockroaches two inches long with antennae to correspond, infesting every house on the island, and the peculiar variety of snapping beetle which " made its appearance every evening just before Clark — The Echinouerms of Peru PLATE Fig Fig 11 Echinometra van brunti Mazatlan, Mexico Upper surface Podophora pedifera Falsarava, Pauniotus Side view Nat Nat size size Clark — Echinoderms Plate HEirOTYPE CO., BOSTON II Clark — The Echinoderms of Peru PLATE 12 Upper surface Nat size Upper surface Nat size Taleahuano, Chile Fig Strongylocentrotus albus Fig Strongylocentrotus gibbosus Payta, Peru Clark — Echinoderins Plate HELIOTYPE CO BOSTON i: Clark — The Echinoderma of Peru PLATE Bay Fig Encope micropora Fig Mellita stokesii Fig Lovenia cordiformis Fig Agassizia serobiculata 13 of Sechura, Peru Upper X surface Upper surface X | San Diego, Cal Upper surface Tunibes, Peru Capon, Peru Side view X *• X | f — Echinoderms Clark.^ Plate 13 HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON Clark, — The Echinoderms of Peru PLATE Phyllophorus peruvianus La 14 Pimta, Callao, Peru Fig Fig Part of calcareous ring of Thyone gibber Fig Peru Calcareous " button " from body wall of Thyone gibber Side view Nat size Lobos de Af uera Islands, X Islands, Peru Lobos de Af uera X 450 X Fig The same Fig Calcareous supporting rod of pedicel of same Thyone Fig The same as 3, but seen as 5, but seen from the from the side side X 450 450 X 450 I I ... view of head Fig 12 Upper surface of the head of a fourth example showing, with 8-10, the variations in squamation figures Garman — Reptiles 10 12 Museum Bulletin of the of Comparative Zoology. .. varieties of rodents." No petrels, gulls, small land birds, "only the tropic or man -of- war bird, and a variety of aquatic birds." The following concerning bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. .. Plate 2, Fig Museum Bulletin of the of Comparative Zoology at harvard college Vol LII No REPORTS ON THE SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION TO THE EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC, IN CHARGE OF ALEXANDER