ANJ*. OBSERVED AT THE ADMIHALTT ISLANDS. 77 



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decanica). Large numbers of these pigeons were killed ; and 

 I preserved specimens of the fruits contained in their crops, 

 all of which fruits I failed to find or reach in the growing 

 condition. Amongst the fruits were abundance of wild nut- 

 megs and wild coffee-berries. The various species of Carpo- 

 pliaga must play a most important role in the distribution of 

 plants, and especially trees, over the wide region inhabited by 



them*. The crops of the birds are found to contain an astonish- 



ing quantity of fruits, some even larger than the nutmeg. Many 

 of the fruits are entirely uninjured and quite fit for germination ; 

 and since when wounded, and probably also often when frightened, 

 or by accident, the pigeons readily eject these fruits and constantly 

 eject the hard kernels, these birds must constantly be transporting 

 the seeds of trees from one island to another. As soon as ever a 

 few littoral trees, such as Barringtonia, have established them- 

 selves by drifted seeds upon a fresh coral island, the pigeons 

 alight in their passages upon these trees and drop the germs of 

 more inland trees. I saw the pigeons thus resting on one of the 

 two or three trees as yet growing on Observatory Island, a very 

 small islet in Nares Bay. At Banda formerly the growth of the 

 nutmegs was confined by the Dutch Government to one island of 

 the group, Great Banda, and the trees on the other islands were 

 destroyed. It was found necessary, however, to send a Commis- 

 sion every year to uproot the young nutmeg-trees sown on the 

 other islands, especially Gunong Api, by the fruit-pigeons. Some 

 of the wild nutmegs in the stomachs of the birds from Pigeon 

 Island were soft and partially digested, and unfit for germination. 

 The main island immediately opposite Pigeon Island consists of 

 a low swampy flat of coral sandstsne covered with a dense growth 

 of high trees. Immediately at the water's edge, along the sandy 

 beach, are the usual littoral trees with banks of seaweeds thrown 

 up at their roots, whilst a few yards inland a different set of 

 trees, with tall straight trunks, grow, the trees being so closely 

 set that it is very sensibly dark beneath them. Amongst 

 these trees is one with a vermilion-red fruit, which fruit was 

 also found at Aru, and, lying thickly scattered on the mud 



Sir Charles Ljell (Principles of Geology, ninth edition, p. 624) refers to the 

 transportation of seeds by the agency of birds, and notes especially the transpor- 

 tation effected by pigeons, quoting Captain Cook s ' Voyages p (book 3. chap, iv.) 

 where it is stated that at Tamra u Mr. Foster shot a pigeon n [obviously a Car- 

 pophaga] "in whose craw was a wild nutmeg/' 



