ii8 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



ground, and so timid that it is impossible to procure speci- 

 mens unless stratagem is resorted to." 



Some years of repeated observation enable me to offer 

 certain amendments to this narrative, evidently written by one 

 who has been impressed by half the life-history of the bird 

 — the half spent on the mainland. The food of the nut- 

 meg pigeon is multifarious. All sorts of nuts and seeds, 

 and even fruits are consumed — quandongs, various palm 

 seeds (including those of the creeping palm or lawyer vine, 

 Calamus), nutmeg {Myristica insipida, not the nutmeg of 

 commerce, though resembling it), the white hard seeds of 

 the native cabbage {Scoevola Koenigii), the Burdekin plum 

 {Pleiogynium solandrt), and all sorts of unpromisingly tough 

 and apparently indigestible, innutritious woodeny nuts and 

 drupes. Moreover, it fattens on such diet, but still the 

 wonder grows at the happy provision which enables nuts 

 proportionately of such enormous size to be swallowed by 

 the bird, and ejected with ease after the pulp or flesh has 

 been assimilated. As the birds alight on the island after 

 their flight from the mainland, a portion of the contents of 

 the crop seems to be expelled. A shower of nuts and seeds 

 comes pattering down through the leaves to the ground as 

 each company finds resting-place. Perhaps those only 

 who are suffering from uncomfortable distention so relieve 

 themselves. The balance of the contents of the crops seem 

 to go through the ordinary process of digestion. Thus, by 

 the medium of the pigeons, there is a systematic traffic in 

 and interchange of seeds between the mainland and the 

 islands. The nutmeg pigeon resorts to islands where 

 there is no fresh water, and builds a rude platform of twigs, 

 and occasionally of leaves, on all sorts of trees, ia all sorts 

 of localities. Palms and mangroves, low bushes, rocky 

 ledges, saplings, are all favoured, no particular preference 

 being shown. It rears generally two, but sometimes three 

 young, one at a time, during the long breeding season, 

 which continues from the end of September until the end 

 of January, and for each successive egg a fresh carpet of 

 twig or leaves is spread, A rare nest was composed of 



