ANIMAL SENSE PERCEPTIONS. 177 



language."* And a similar error, or danger, appears to exist in 

 the theory of " warning colours," as used for an explanation of 

 a difficult problem in coloration. Some of the most brightly 

 coloured fruits are edible, and so are gorgeous fishes, elegantly 

 marked mammals, and brilliant birds. The evil smell of the 

 durian does not prevent its being a favourite fruit to the Orang, 

 as well as to man, nor does its hard and spiny envelope afford it 

 protection.! On the other hand, many fruits obtain an un- 

 doubted advantage by their edible qualities, their seeds passing 

 intact through the bodies of birds and other animals, and thus 

 being scattered far and wide. The well-known nutmeg (Myris- 

 tica moschata) affords a good example. This fruit, with its red 

 arillus of mace, which is exposed by the splitting of the outside 

 envelope when ripe, is both aromatic in smell and not incon- 

 spicuous in appearance. Birds, especially the Nutmeg-Pigeon 

 (Carpophaga aenea) devour this fruit with avidity, and by their 

 involuntary dispersal of the seeds caused the spice-preserving 

 Dutch considerable trouble. These protectionists compelled the 

 native chiefs on the islands of Ternate, Tidor, Makian, &c, to 

 destroy their nutmeg plantations, in order that there might be 

 no competition with the produce of their own trees in Amboyna 

 and Banda. They employed agents to see that this destructive 

 process was vigorously carried out, but their efforts were con- 

 siderably frustrated by the birds, who deposited seeds in un- 

 looked-for spots and inaccessible positions. As Labillardiere 

 narrated : — " This circumstance made the Company resolve to 

 settle residents in those islands, whose principal business it is 



* This shows no advance on the teachings of Socrates, who, in his dis- 

 course with Aristodemus, observed: — "A tongue hath been bestowed on 

 every other animal, but what animal, except man, hath the power of forming 

 words with it, whereby to explain his thoughts, and make them intelligible 

 to others " (of. G-. H. Lewes, ' Philosophy of Socrates '). 



f Mr. Hornaday thus describes this edible luxury : — " The fruit is very 

 much the same in size and shape as a pineapple, but the entire outside is a 

 bristling array of dark green conical spines, three-fourths of an inch high, and 

 very sharp. . . . It is a painful matter to hold a durian except by the stem, 

 and I would as soon have a six-pound shot fall upon me as one of them. . . . 

 This wholly abominable pod smells even more offensive than it looks, the 

 odour given off being like that of a barrel of onions at its most aggressive 

 stage" (' Two Years in the Jungle,' p. 318). 



Zooi. 4th ser. vol. VI., May, 1902. p 



