Mollusca of King Island

Abstract

During the month of November, 1922, I spent some days on King Island visiting relatives, and took what opportunity offered to investigate the Mollusca. No really comprehensive list of the Island's shell fauna appears to have been published. In one of the early French expeditions in 1802 the Naturalists Peron and Lesueur made considerable collections, their take being worked up principally by Lamarck and Blainville. Some of the species described by Tenison- Woods in the seventies of last century were from the Island, and they and others appeared in his Census which was compiled in 1877. Some of these, however, have not been retaken and require confirmation. The late Professor Tate had a small parcel of King Island shells sent him by some correspondent, and they were recorded by Tate and May in their Revised Census, 1901. There also appeared in the Victorian nature publication, "The Wombat," Vol. V., page 35, 1902, a fairly long list containing 135 species. I collected at Currie Harbour, Surprise Bay, Fraser, and near "Grassy." The first two on the West Coast, and the others on the East.