XXV FREYCINETIA 321 



of Wilson and Evans that a Grosbeak (Psittacirostra) and the 

 Hawaiian Crow (Corvus tropicus) feed principally on ripe Frey- 

 cinetia fruits, the seeds having been often found by Mr. Wilson in 

 the stomach of the former bird. No doubt these birds distribute 

 the seeds over the islands of the group. Mr. Perkins tells me that 

 the Grosbeak is found unmodified all over the group, and that it 

 no doubt frequently gets carried nolens vokns from one island 

 to another. In his memoir on the birds in the Fauna Hawaiiensis, 

 he remarks that the essential food of the " Ou," the native name of 

 this bird, is the fruiting inflorescence of Freycinetias. The " Oo " 

 (Acrulocercus) and the Hawaiian Crow above mentioned, as he also 

 observes, feed on these ripe red fruits. Like Mr. Wilson, he some- 

 times found the Crow absolutely filled with this food to the 

 exclusion of all others (see Chapter XXXHI). Facts of a similar 

 kind came under my notice whilst in these islands. Thus on 

 one occasion I observed, on a leaf below a fruit-head that had 

 been partly eaten by a bird, a pellet half an inch long composed 

 entirely of Freycinetia seeds well soaked with the gastric juices 

 and apparently only recently disgorged. Sir W. Buller refers 

 to different New Zealand birds, as the Banded Rail (Rallus 

 philippensis), the Kaka Parrot (Nestor meridionalis), and the 

 " Tui " (Prosthemadera), that live on the " sugary flowering 

 spadices" of Freycinetia Banksii. One can legitimately suppose 

 that they also attack the juicy berries. It is singular that as 

 we learn from Dr. Warburg (p. 17), Flying- Foxes (Pteropida;) feed 

 on the flowers and top-leaves of many species of Freycinetia, and 

 he considers that they would aid in fertilisation by carrying about 

 the pollen in the hair of the head. Here again it would seem to 

 us highly probable that whilst brushing past a ripe fruit-head these 

 bats might readily carry away in their fur some of the minute 

 seeds, which in the fresh berry are " sticky " or adhesive. 



Just as it was possible in the case of Coprosma in the South 

 Pacific (see page 296) to connect its distribution with the range of 

 the Purple Water-Hens (Porphyrio), so it may perhaps be legiti- 

 mate to associate the range of Freycinetia over Polynesia with the 

 distribution of the Honey-Eaters (Meliphagidse) in the Pacific, 

 a family sometimes possessing peculiar genera as in New Zealand 

 and Hawaii, and one in which the species have usually a very 

 confined range, being sometimes limited to a single island 

 (Newton in Encycl. Brit. xii. 139). To this family belongs the 

 New Zealand " Tui " above mentioned ; and it may be remarked 

 that these birds as a rule feed on soft fruits, such as figs, and 



Y 



