BOTANICAL NOTES. 293 



the branches of the trees, tliese birds disgorge the seeds they have 

 brought from other localities ; and the r3Jected seeds and seed- 

 vesscJs lie strewn on the ground beneath. Tlie soft and often fleshy 

 fruits, on which the fruit pigeons subsist, belong to numerous 

 species of trees. Sume of them are as large even as a hen's egg, as 

 in the case of those of the species of C'anarium (" ka-i ") which 

 have a pulpy exterior that is alone digested and retrined by the 

 pigeon. The fruits of the banyans and other ficoid trees, which 

 with the Canarium are amongst the most conspicuous trees in the 

 interior of the coi-al islets., are apparently preferred by the fruit 

 pigeons, since they occur commonly in their crops. A species of 

 Eugenia common in the interior of these islets possesses fruits found 

 in the crops of these birds. Amongst other fruits and seeds on 

 Avhich these pigeons sub.sist, and which they must transport from 

 one locality to another, are those of a species of Elceocarpus (" toa "), 

 a species of laurel (Litsea), a nutmeg (Myristica), an Achras,^ one or 

 more species of A7'eca, and j)robabl3" a species of Kentia. There is, 

 however, another bird common on these coral islets, the ground 

 pigeon Geophilus nicobaricvs, known commonly as the Nicobar 

 pigeon, which transports seeds in its gizzard cavity that on account 

 of their hardness are not fed upon by the ordinary fruit pigeon 

 (Carpophapa). The peculiar structure of the gizzard, which is de- 

 scribed on page 323, enables the Nicobar pigeon to crack seeds that 

 can onl}' be broken by a sharp blow with a stone. I have found 

 inside this organ, the hard red seeds of a leguminous plant, very 

 probably Adenanthera pavonina, of which one seed is occasionally 

 found to be cracked. We may therefore consider that many small 

 hard seeds and seed-vessels, which would be refused by the common 

 fi'uit pigeon -of these islands, are transported from one locality to 

 another in the gizzard cavity of the Nicobar pigeon. 



From the foregoing remarks it may be inferred that the pigeons 

 in these islands play a very important part in the dispersal of ]>laut3, 

 to which, as Mr. Botting Hemsley remarks in his report (page 313), 

 they have perhaps contributed more than any other animal. In the 

 Solomon Islands the fruit pigeons, as dusk approaches, frequent the 

 islets on the coral reefs in great numbers, and from their unwilling- 

 ness to leave their roosts in the trees they fall an easy prey to the 

 sportsman. In one afternoon, on one of the islets of Choiseul Bay, 



1 I am indebted to Mr. Charles Moore of Sydney Ts.S.W., for the identification of this 

 fruit. ( Vide also " Journal and Proceedings of .the Eoyal Society,, X.S. W., " XVII., p. 22G.> 



