32 



JOURXAL OF THE WILD BIRD IWESTIGATIOX SOCIETY. 



Lincolnshire. It is not only a lake or deep 

 water species, but a brittle one, which lakc- 

 divino; ducks often break off in fishing, I am 

 now told. I can onlv say such a sight is very 

 rare, Init I have seen {b) many species carried 

 from ponds to other waters, (i) Tlie easiest 

 way to demonstrate this is to use a dog when 

 water-hens or wild ducks have young, when 

 the dog can be made to understand it is the 

 old birds and not the young ones he is wanted 

 to put out of the ponds. I had a trained dog, 

 but he has gone the way of all good and bad 

 dogs, I regret to say. 



It does not want often doing, for it is cruel 

 work, as the \\'ater-Hen is especially reluc- 

 tant to lea\e its young and to forsake its 

 home-waters. When forced to do so, after 

 much di\ing and resting under the water to 

 escape being clri\-en out, I lia\-e seen them 

 carry awav on their bodies, Lemiui of three 

 species, Ranuuculcs of two, as well as Chora 

 •vidgaris and Elodea, also manv seeds in the 

 autumn montlis, that I could not jjossibly 

 name during a passing \ ision through a field- 

 glass. The onlv s]5ecies I am absolutely 

 certain of was AUsiiui phujUino-dqiKiticc . 

 The Water-Hen was put oiU b\- mv dog, and 

 ai"ose from a part of the pond where this plant 

 was growing. It was marked down at the 

 exact spot it settled in another pond in the 

 next field, onlv 25 yards away. From the 

 water surface of that spot we fished otit its 

 seeds with a sliell scoup. Alisma was not 

 then found growing in this pond, vet it A\as 

 found in the following year, Init did not 

 flower until the next season. 



This series of ponds, for there were three, 

 were ]Tipe ponds, and all drained int<i one 

 another; vet the one in which the waler-he'is 

 and wild ducks rested, had much the longest 

 list of plants, though they were only divided 

 by fix'e and twentv-fix^e feiM, and were in three 

 different fields. The flora of none of them 

 was exactly alike. 



This fact of the sliolulv \-aryino- flora of 



3. In the alimentar\' 



canal 



contiguous ponds, often, as in this case, inter- 

 draining was the startling fact which in 1874 

 set me to work at making a special study of 

 their flora and fauna. 



To such an extent have I found seed or 

 plant carriage going on during the forty-fi\-e 

 years I have studied this subject (for mv first 

 pond note is dated i,^ iv. 1874), that I have 

 made the following simimarv to tabulate all 

 the means of carriage I know of: — 



Tai'.le of Methods of Transport of 

 Plants and Seeds l.y Birds. 



I. — Internal Seed-Carriage (the commonest). 



1. In the crop ) The whole range of 



2. In the gizzard ) edible seeds. 



Onl\- hard ones as 



a rule, with 

 many exceptions. 



II. — External Seed-Carriage (a rarer form). 



4. In mud, fairh' common. 



5. In cla\' balls, very rare. 



6. Amid ruffled feathers, rare. 



7. B\' mucosit}', not quite so rare. 



III. — External Plant or Seed-Carriage (the 

 rarest). 



8. On the back | All rare, but 8 the 



9. Round the neck - commonest, and 

 10. On the feet I 10 the rarest. 



On this table I have only space here to say 

 a few words. Clay balls as a means of car- 

 riage is the rarest form I have per.sonallv met 

 with. I have only obtained the seeds of tilth 

 and pasture species from clay balls supplied 

 to me by gamekeepers on the uninjured feet 

 of partridges, or, in still rarer cases, from the 

 feet of birds which had the misfortune to ha\'e 

 a foot shot off, as I judged, or taken off by 

 spring traps. This is all 1 can say here on 

 ph\-sical means of carriage bv way of proof. 



(2) Negati\'e demonstration is just as 

 potent in convincing a properly trained 



