400 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



legend given by Hazlewood in his Fijian Dictionary. Its method 

 of dissemination in the Fijian forests is, however, far more prosaic. 

 Pigs and fruit-pigeons assist in the dispersal of the seeds in these 

 islands. Pigs are often found in the vicinity of a Tarawau tree ; 

 and evidently they much appreciate the fallen fleshy fruits, which 

 are about i J inch (3-3 cm.) across and inclose a large stone ^ inch 

 (2"2 cm.) in diameter. The entire fruit and the detached stone sink 

 in sea-water, the last floating only a few hours, even after drying for 

 four years. Mr. Hemsley regards the genus as probably dispersed 

 by the currents, since a stone was found amongst the floating drift 

 collected by the Challenger Expedition off the coast of New 

 Guinea. The stone, however, is described as seedless, which may 

 explain its buoyancy. It is, however, to the fruit-pigeon that we 

 must look for the dispersal of this genus. In the crop of one of 

 these birds shot in Fiji I found the entire fruit of a Tarawau 

 tree. 



Canarium (Burseraceae) 



This genus of trees, to which nearly a hundred species are 

 referred in the Index Kewensis, belongs mainly to tropical Asia 

 and Malaya, a few species occurring in tropical Africa, Madagascar, 

 the Mascarene Islands, and Polynesia. Its great home is in 

 Malaya, to which two-thirds of the species are confined ; but its 

 distribution in the oceanic islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans 

 is especially interesting, Mauritius, Bourbon, Fiji, Tonga, and 

 Samoa (Home) each possessing a species. 



The large drupes of the genus, as I found in Fiji, have no 

 capacity for dispersal by currents ; and we are, therefore, compelled 

 to appeal to the agency of the frugivorous bird. Yet to a person 

 unaccustomed to the ways of fruit-pigeons the transportation 

 across a broad tract of ocean of large heavy " stones," an inch and 

 more in size, would seem impossible ; and even to a student of 

 dispersal improbable. Unless, however, we prefer to accept the 

 Lemurian theory for the Indian Ocean and the theory of a 

 Melanesian continent for the Pacific we are compelled to appeal to 

 these birds ; and it can scarcely be said that our appeal is without 

 some justification. Both in the Solomon Islands and in the Fijis 1 

 was familiar with the dispersal of the stones of these trees by fruit- 

 pigeons ; and Wallace, amongst other writers, observed the same 

 long ago in the Malayan Islands {Malay Archipelago). Stones 

 obtained from the crops of Fijian pigeons measured i^^^r ^ ^ '"'-'^ 

 (3 X 2'S cm.). In the Solomon Islands these birds .stock the 



