Seed-Carriers 269 



its leg ; and what one has done, others of course may 

 do, and probably have done. Still, dirt on feet and 

 beaks is rare. 



The birds most likely to have muddy feet are 

 naturally the waders, and those which frequent the 

 edges of ponds and moist and muddy places. And 

 these, if they carry away mud, are certain to carry 

 away seeds also, for damp soil catches and keeps the 

 seed dropped upon it in a way that dry soil cannot. 

 From about a breakfast - cupful . of mud taken from 

 under the water, and from the edge, of a small pond, 

 Mr. Darwin succeeded in raising 537 plants. 



Now the birds which frequent bogs and marshes and 

 other muddy places, are also the very birds which 

 wander most, the migrants, in fact, chief among which, 

 for the wide extent of its journeyings, is the wood- 

 cock ; for there is hardly any island, however remote, 

 but the woodcock finds its way thither, and no doubt 

 it has carried in its time many a seed, which has been 

 dropped again in soil as muddy as that from which it 

 was taken, and has therefore had a good chance of 

 establishing itself. 



But, though birds convey seeds both in their feathers 

 and in the mud on their feet, they no doubt convey 

 many more in their crops. There is no gastric juice 

 or anything else in the crop to injure the seeds in any 

 way ; and when a large supply of food has been taken, 

 the grains do not all pass into the gizzard for twelve, 

 or even eighteen hours, in the course of which time a 

 good deal might happen. Birds, for example, are 

 occasionally blown the whole way across the Atlantic, 

 the wind carrying them on at the rate of thirty-five 

 miles an hour ; and tbey might well, therefore, be 



