Seed-Carriers 235 



the two; and they have been observed to leave unnoticed 

 a holly-tree bearing yellow berries, while they stripped 

 other trees near of their ordinary red ones. Yellow holly- 

 berries being uncommon, these were probably considered 

 to be still unfit for eating. 



But to mention, in conclusion, some of the other seed- 

 carriers besides the birds. Among these must be reckoned 

 fish, locusts, cattle, and perhaps above all, pigs. 



Fish swallow the seeds of many water and land plants, 

 including even the large seeds of the water-lily; but being- 

 confined to their own pond, lake, or river, their range is 

 necessarily limited. When, however, they, in their turn, 

 are swallowed by herons, storks, kingfishers, and other 

 fish-eating birds, the seeds may be conveyed to much 

 greater distances and be dropped quite uninjured. Some 

 large seeds of the great southern water-lily, for instance, 

 found in the stomach of a heron, had probably first been 

 swallowed by a fish. 



The locusts which frequent parts of South Africa are 

 believed by the farmers to have introduced there various 

 new plants which are injurious to the grass; and it is a 

 fact that undigested seeds, capable of germinating, are 

 found in their droppings. 



Cattle and pigs, but especially the latter, are respon- 

 sible for the rampant way in which apple-trees are now 

 running wild and forming extensive groves in the Pampas. 

 The pips are so well protected as to be indigestible even 

 by a pig; and the same may be said of peach-stones, 

 which have also been extensively scattered in New Zealand 

 and elsewhere, by similar means and with similar results. 



