Il6 ISLAND LIFE SEEDS CARRIED BY BIRDS. 



told) " was in the first place effected by goats, aided by the 

 reckless waste of man." * 



The question as to how vegetation and animal life 

 was first evolved upon these specks of land, situated 

 in the midst of the melancholy ocean, is a curious one, 

 which has much exercised the minds of thoughtful 

 naturalists. It is evident that the problem as regards 

 animal life is surrounded by many and great difficulties, 

 which do not apply in nearly the same degree to the 

 question of vegetation. 



Nor can any of the theories be accepted as very 

 satisfactory, with reference to the former, in such a 

 place as St. Helena, with its beetling cliff, and deep 

 water extending almost to their very base. 



That small seeds may be carried by the winds and 

 by the agency of birds to very great distances is a 

 well-known fact. Some of the larger seeds also have 

 been known to float or to be carried by currents, 

 adhering to branches, for long distances across the sea, 

 without losing their vitality. Then again there is 

 hardly any apparent limit to the distance to which 

 seeds may be carried, adherent to the feet and feathers 

 of birds. Mr. Darwin, whose remarks on this subject 

 are quoted by Mr. Wallace, states that he has found 

 mud adhering to the legs and feet of many birds, and 

 in some cases has reared plants from the seeds thus 

 adhering to their legs, after they had been shot and 

 brought in, having flown perhaps long distances ; and 

 Mr. Wallace states that " Mr. Darwin has shown by 

 experiment that almost all earth contains seeds. With 

 6-J ounces of mud from the edge of a little pond, 

 carefully treated under glass, he produced 537 distinct 



* Island Life, by Alfred R. Wallace, 1880, p. 51. 



