128 MR. A. NEWTON ON DISPERSION OF SEEDS BY BIRDS. [April 21, 



At my request he has since furnished me with the following parti- 

 culars respecting it : — 



"On the 8th of December 1860, Mr. Sayer, a bird-stuifer at 

 Norwich, showed me the Partridge's leg and ball of earth which I 

 recently placed in your hands, and, in answer to my inquiries, gave 

 me the following particulars: — 'A gentleman, whose name he did 

 not know, but whose face was quite familiar to him as an occasional 

 visitor to his shop, brought the leg to him a day or two before, 

 stating that the bird to which it belonged had been seen, on a heavy- 

 land farm in Suffolk, hobbling along in a very unusual manner, and 

 was with little difficulty run down and secured. It was then found 

 that the lower half of one leg was imbedded in a mass of earth, which 

 raised it considerably from the ground, and necessarily kept the 

 limb in a bent position. The bird was half starved.' 



" The lump, measuring 7^ inches in circumference, and weighing 

 6J oz., had become as hard as stone, and certainly in that state ac- 

 counted for the bird not having been able to free itself from the en- 

 cumbrance. Two toes only are visible, of which one has the nail 

 torn off level with the edge of the mass itself. From the upper part 

 protrudes a short bit of straw, and this being entangled round the 

 foot probably by degrees collected the soil, which may also have 

 been hardened by the frost at night. The unfortunate bird may, too, 

 have been wounded in the leg, and thus unable to endure the pain 

 of removing the earth when it first began to accumulate. I have no 

 reason to doubt Mr. Sayer' s statement, and believe he told me what 

 he heard from the gentleman. The leg, when I saw it, looked fresh 

 where it had been cut off. 



(Signed) " Henry Stevenson." 



It will be remembered that Mr. Darwin, in his work on the 

 ' Origin of Species,' speaks of the possibility of the seeds of plants 

 being occasionally transported to great distances by being enclosed 

 in earth adhering to the beaks and feet of birds ; and he mentions 

 the fact of his having "removed twenty-two grains of dry argillaceous 

 earth from one foot of a Partridge," in which earth " there was a 

 pebble quite as large as the seed of a vetch " (pp. 362, 363). Now 

 the mass of clay I exhibit is enormously greater than the quantity of 

 earth mentioned by Mr. Darwin, and is sufficient to hold the germs 

 of a very extensive flora. 



Apart from the statement of Mr. Stevenson, that the lump, when 

 he first saw it, was " as hard as stone," and the contrast thereby 

 afforded by the " fresh look " of the leg, a close examination of the 

 specimen convinces me that the clay, as that gentleman suggests, ac- 

 cumulated gradually. The two toes which are visible have become 

 distorted, and have accommodated themselves as well as they were 

 able to the shape of the mass. I imagine also that the loss of the 

 claw, noticed by Mr. Stevenson, has been experienced since the mass , 

 attained nearly its present size and shape ; and it will be seen that 

 the stump has perfectly healed over. Now all this must have taken! 

 some time ; I do not venture to say whether days, weeks, or months. 

 It is clear that, as the bulk and weight of the encumbrance increased. 



