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Dicaeum hirundinaceum I have very rarely seen, but I have 

 seen it eating the berries also. It is to neither of these birds, 

 however, that I ascribe the work of distributing the seeds. A 

 far more important part is played by the Silver-eye — Zosteropa 

 cendeFceus. This bird frequents small, thickish trees, and 

 Casuarina is just the kind of tree to this bird's taste. Seeing, 

 therefore, that the seeds are part of its winter food, and the tree 

 a favourite shelter, it appears pretty certain that the despised 

 Silver-eye is the chief agent in the dissemination of the particular 

 Loranthus under consideration. 



Another bird which must be regarded as a distributor is 

 Grauculus melanops, a winter visitant to this district. When 

 insects become scarce, a mixed diet is resorted to. I have on 

 many occasions watched Grauculus hovering over the African 

 box-thorn bushes in the hedges, picking off the ripe berries. 

 The fruit of Loranthus is also acceptable, and readily eaten. 

 Being rather weak of flight, a little hovering seems to tire the 

 bird, and it then flies to a perch on the top of some neighbour- 

 ing tree. Where the CasuarlrKs grow plentifully, Grauculus 

 must of necessity deposit many seeds as it perches on the tree-tops 

 between its swoops at the Loranthus clusters. 



Have we not now a pretty satisfactory explanation of the 

 attachment of L. exocarpi to the CasuarlncB in the habits above 

 described of the two birds Zosterops and Grauculus? Probably 

 in the case of Zosterops there has grown up a certain amouat of 

 interdependency — the tree sheltering and affording food to the 

 bird, and the bird in its turn securing the spread of the mistletoe. 

 To Zosterops also must be credited the occurrence of the parasite 

 on the fruit trees, as the Silver-eye is a notorious fruit-eater and 

 frequenter of orchards all the year round. I would hint again 

 at the perhaps small part played by Acanthiza, which nests in 

 the mistletoe clumps at the end of winter, and so may often 

 carry seeds sticking to its feathers, &c., as indeed all the birds 

 mentioned above are almost certain to do. The questions involved 

 by the consideration of the exact modes of distribution of these 

 birds are beyond the scope of this paper. I propose to deal with 

 that point in a future contribution. 



Discussion. 



Mr. J. G O. Tepper doubted whether L. exocarpi occurred on 

 garden fruit-trees, as stated by the author. The only well- 

 authenticated instance of a Loranthus species being abundantly 

 parasitic on any kinds of fruit-trees are those recorded from 

 Victoria, &c., of L. celastroides. The view that birds which feed 

 on the berries of Loranthus are the principal agents in their 

 distribution he regarded as untenable, as also the assumption 



