Govett. — On a Bird-killing Tree. 365 



My first idea was that the birds were perhaps attracted by some sweet- 

 ness in the gum, but my sister tells_me that it does not appear to have any 

 taste, and it certainly is not sweet. 



My next impression was, that insects must be caught in the gum, and 

 that the birds in seeking for them fell into the same trap. Upon inquiry, 

 I learned that there were a number of insects sticking to the berries. My 

 brother noticed mosquitos, spiders, house-flies, blue-bottle-flies, and the big 

 brown blow-flies. He states, however, that he'does not himself think the birds 

 are attracted by the tree in any way more than that they find shelter there, 

 and he adds that he is quite sure that no importance should be attached to 

 the fact that the blight- birds were caught in the berries when thrown into 

 the open ashpit, as he has frequently observed these birds in large flocks in 

 an ashpit in his own garden in quest of scraps of potatoes, etc. 



A friend to whom I mentioned the circumstance just told, remembers a 

 shrub in Mr. James Eussell's garden, at Auckland, being pointed out as re- 

 markable for the same behaviour. There were tufts of feathers adhering to 

 it also, and the shrub, if not of the same species, closely resembled the one 

 at New Plymouth.* Mr. Buchanan, too, tells me that he and Dr. Hector 

 recollect that when travelling to the north of Auckland, they were told of a 

 tree which captured birds ; but they did not pay any heed to what they 

 regarded as a bit of Maori romance. It is clear, then, that Pisonia bruno- 

 niana is a confirmed bird- slayer, and that the specimen at Taranaki is not a 

 depraved individual of a harmless species, f 



I may, perhaps, also mention that Mr. Buchanan, after considerable 

 search for this shrub, believes, or at least thinks, it probable that it is in 

 its native state extinct, and is now only to be found cultivated in gardens. 



The question of course arises, — Does the plant derive any, and, if so, 

 what advantage from its sticky seed-vessels ? As the leaves and stems do 

 not exude gum, it surely cannot extract nourishment from its captives as 

 does Dionasa and other carnivorous plants, for it is difficult to understand 

 that any nutriment can be absorbed through full-grown seeds, which spring 

 from the ends of the branches. If the flowers were viscid, fertilization 

 might be promoted by the entangled insects ; but it is the seeds alone which 

 generate the viscid matter. Can it be that the seeds are sticky to ensure 

 their being widely disseminated by means of the bird to whose plumage 

 they attach themselves ? If so, the plant has not been successful in its 



* It is a Pisonia of the same species. 



t Since writing this, I find that Hooker, in his Flora of New Zealand, describes 

 Pisonia as a " small genus, chiefly of littoral tropical shrubs or trees with viscid cymes of 

 fruit, sometimes armed with hooked spines in which small birds get entangled." P. bruno- 

 niana has certainly no spines, 



