560 THE UNIVERSE. 



As Tlieophrasttis remarked, these birds swallow the 

 berries of the mistletoe. But as the pulp alone is absorbed, 

 and as the seeds defy their digestive powers, these like the 

 worm of Hamlet, which only effects its migration by trav- 

 ersing the body of a beggar, fall with the excrement upon 

 the branches, and there take root. Here the mistletoe soon 

 forms those parasitical tufts which invade the crowns of 

 the giants of our forests; beautiful globular tufts, decorated 

 with perpetual verdure when winter has already strijjped 

 of leaves their powerful su2Dporter.^ 



Other birds also i:)ropagate a great number of plants by 

 similar means. Travellers relate that the Dutch having 

 destroyed the nutmeg-trees in several of the Indian islands, 

 in order to confine the cultivation of these trees to Ceylon, 

 the nutmeg-eating pigeons, which are very fond of this 

 fruit, sowed the tree afresh in almost every spot where 

 Dutch vandalism had extirpated it. 



The part played by birds in the general harmony of the 

 globe does not end here. According to some botanists it 

 is the birds that carry off the coral-red service-berries, 

 and thus plant the tree on the crumbling porticoes of our 

 castles and our old riiined churches. The grape of Amer- 

 ica {Phytolacca decandra), recently introduced near Bor- 

 deaux, has been disseminated by the Avinged songsters of 

 our forests all through southern France, and even as far 

 as the desert gorges of the Pyrenees. It is to the mag- 

 pie of Ceylon that the propagation of the cinnamon-trees 

 in that island is often intrusted, and this fact is so generally 

 known that the inhabitants afford it ample protection. 



^ Ouce adherent to the branch, the seed of the mistletoe germinates there, 

 plunges its root into the bark, and lives at the expense of the tree. The stalks 

 of this plant possess the peculiarity of extending with equal facility in every 

 direction. The fruit is white and of the size of a currant. 



