Dr. E. A. Goeldi on Myiopatis scmifusca. 173 



this parasite grows in abundance. As the nutritious part 

 of the fruit is the mucilaginous pulp, while the seeds are 

 only a dead weight, the birds seek to rid themselves of the 

 latter by wiping the sticky kernels off their beaks on the 

 nearest twigs and branches, which after a time become 

 thickly studded with these objects. The pulp, physio- 

 logically manipulated and previously prepared in the parental 

 crop, constitutes the food furnished by the parents to tli3 

 nestlings. 



This result was further corroborated by the following 

 experimental observation : — When the two nestlings were 

 almost full-fledged they were taken from the nest (which, 

 by the way, was placed so near the ground and in such 

 an exposed situation that it was liable to be destroyed at 

 any moment) and put into a cage, which was hung in the 

 shade on a branch of a neighbouring tree. The roomy cage 

 was made of narrow splints of the leaf-stems of the Mirity- 

 palm, the usual material for a bird-cage locally, and con- 

 tained nothing but a perch. After a very short interval 

 the parent birds found and recognised their little ones, 

 as we had hoped, and continued to feed them as before, 

 through the narrow openings of the cage. It was not many 

 days before both the splints on the floor of the cage and 

 still more the perch were thickly bespread with the sticky 

 seeds of the "herva de passarinho," which in some places 

 formed hanging clusters in all stages of incipient germi- 

 nation. In the same way as in the germination of the Old- 

 World mistletoe, the first phase in the Loranthacese is the 

 sending out of a pedicle from the basal point of the kernel 

 with an adhesive terminal disc, representing morphologically 

 the first root, destined to penetrate the tissues of the branch 



Loranthacese (interesting; on account of the trouble and damage they cause 

 to arboriculture near Para) are Phthirusa pyrifolia Eichler (principally 

 infesting species of the genus Citrus, such as lemon-, lime-, and orange- 

 trees), Phthirusa theobromce Eichler (persecuting more especially the 

 mango-tree, Mangifera indica), and Oryctanthus ruficaulis Eichler (found 

 preferably on the Sapotille-tvee, Achras sapota). These kinds of "herva 

 de passarinho " much resemble each other, but on close observation 

 differences mav be noted. 



