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Ch. XL.] 



MIGRATION OF SPECIES. 



395 



manner, tlie blackbird and misseltbrnsb, wlien tliej devour 



them 



to tlie earth undigested in their excrement.^ 



Pulpy fruits serve 



quadrupeds and birds as food, while 



their seed 



s 



often hard and indigestible, pass uninjured 



throup-h the intestines, and are deposited far from their 



original place 



t 



in a condition peculiarly fit for 

 So well are the farmers, in some parts of 



of growth 



England, aware of this fact, that when they desire to raise a 

 quickset hedge in the shortest possible time, they feed 



common 



Oxyacantha), and then sow the stones which are ejected 

 ui their excrement, whereby they gain an entire year in the 

 growth of the plant. t Birds, when they pluck cherries, sloes, 

 and haws, fly away with them to 

 and when they have devoured the fruit, drop the stone into 

 the ground. Captain Cook, in his account of the volcanic 



some 



Hebrides 



makes 



vation :— ' Mr. Forster, in his botanical excursion this day, 

 shot a pigeon, in the craw of which was a wild nutmeg.'§ 

 It is easy, therefore, to perceive, that birds in their migra- 



even heavy seeds to new isles and continents. 



may 



numbers 



must 



to the transportation of seeds to new habitations. When 



the sea retires from the shore, and leaves 

 the beach, or in the mud of estuaries. 



mi 





by tlie 



tliem away acrain, or destroy them 



long immersion ; but when they are gathered by land birds 

 which frequent the sea-side^ or by waders and water-fowl, 

 they are often borne inland ; and if the bird to whose crop 



may 



from 



Let such an accident happen but once 



* Amcen. Acad., toL vi. § 22. 

 t Smith's Introd. to Phys. and Syst. 

 Botany, p. 304. 1807. 



X This information -v^as communicated 



to me by Professor Ilenslow, of Cam- 



bridge. 



Book iii. ch. iv. 



