l6 ON THE DISPERSAL OF SEEDS BY MAMMALS. 



rapidly and at a higher elevation can detect fruit, if coloured, . 

 at a great distance and can speedily make their way to it, and 

 that besides many of the fruit-eating mammals are nocturnal 

 and, therefore, colour would be useless to them in the dark. 



Berries and drupes are eaten whole (except for the skin) by 

 the monkeys, if they are small, like Nephelium, Zizyphus. In 

 these fruits the sweet pulp often adheres strongly to the stone 

 making it so slippery that it is almost impossible to avoid - 

 swallowing the latter. ZizypJms calophylliis, a common creeper 

 with small globose fruit, and the Mata-kuching {Nepheliitm 

 malaie?ise) are good instances of this form of drupe. In Bac- 

 caiitea motleyana, Hook, the Rambai, the seeds, of which there ■ 

 are three in a fruit inclosed in sweet pulp, are very thin, and are 

 quite troublesome to eject. 



The Malays and the Sakais in eating these fruits generally 

 swallow the seeds even of such large drupes as the Rambutan, 

 and I have seen in the deserted encampments of the Sakais 

 in Pahang germinating seeds of the Rambutan which had been 

 swallowed and had passed through their bodies. The Malays : 

 indeed say that this is the most wholesome and pleasant way 

 of eating these fruits. 



There are two forms of the fruit of the Polessan {Nephelmm 

 fmitabile), in one of which the flesh adheres tightly to, the 

 stone, and in the other it is firmer, and readily breaks away, 

 and can be nibbled off easily. If a monkey ate the cling-stone 

 variety the seed would slip dov/n its throat, while from the 

 firmer-fleshed free-stone variety it would nibble the flesh and 

 throw the stone away. In drupes of this kind it is essential 

 that they should not be too large for an animal to swallow, 

 and there is a decided advantage in the sweet pulp being very 

 thin as it is thus more slippery and cannot be detached by biting. 

 Many large and heavy fruits like those of the wild mangoes 

 {Mangifera ccesia, lagenifera, etc.) and Careya are carried by 

 the monkeys who gather them to a convenient perch to be 

 eaten, and in doing so they frequently drop them, so that one 

 finds large fruits partially eaten often at considerable distances 

 from the parent tree. But the weight of these fruits has also 

 another advantage, by preventing. theii lodging in the tangled; 



