SPICY ISLANDS. 



rfi5 



Mofchatdi Gerard, 1536. Baubin, Pinax, 407. Nux Myrijlica, 

 Rumph. Amb. ii. p. 14. tab. 4. Myrijiica officinalis, Linn. Supp. 265. 

 Le Mufcadier, Sonnerat, N. Guinee, p, 194. tab. 116. 117. 118; 

 and nutmeg tree, IFoodville, Medic. Bot. ii. 363. tab. 134. 



Nutmegs are the food of a variety of birds, fuch as Cock- Food of Birds. 

 atoos, different forts of pigeons, Jaar 'vogels, or the wreathed 

 Horn-bills, Latham, i. 358. The pigeons are generally fiippofed 

 to be the diffeminators of thefe valuable fpices, and have been 

 abfurdly imagined as the only inftruments of their propagation; 

 but the nuts grow equally well by the common method of fow- 

 ing. The pigeons pull off the external coat, before they devour 

 the nut ; the mace is digefted, but the kernel paffes through 

 them entire ; fuch as falls among the thick grafs, is fure to fuc- 

 ceed. By this accident the trees are fpread over all the iflands, 

 and fome which are very diftant, fo as to elude the utmofl dili- 

 gence of the Dutch to effect the total extirpation of the nutmeg. 



The Columba ^enea of Linnaus, PL Enl. 164^ or the Nutmeg Nutmes 

 Pigeon oi Latham, iv. 636. and var A. 637, Sonnerat, 168. tab. 102, 

 is the firft fpecies. The whole upper part of the body is 'Tieeii 

 gloffed with gold and copper. A bird of this kind, perhaps a 

 variety, or perhaps of a different fex, was fliot by John Reinhold 

 Forjier on the iiland oi Rotterdam, with two undigefted nutmegs 

 in its craw, a proof how remotely this fpice may be diffeminated; 

 what folly it is therefore in the Dutch to endeavour to confine 

 it to the narrow bounds of the Mollucca ox Banda groups, 

 when the very fowls of the air are able to baffle fo unjuft a mo- 

 nopoly. 



The next, the Wbite^ Lathanh 638; Sonnerat. N. Guinee^ 



169. 



Pigeon. 



