Miscellaneous Pests. 



144 



[August, 1909. 



cnses tlie seed slips out, but in Viscum 

 orientate, Wild., a gentle pressure causes 

 the fruit-wall to crack and the seed to 

 be jerked out. The fruits of Cingalese 

 Loranthacese are comparatively large, 

 often 2 era. in length. 



On the other hand, the two birds 

 which in Ceylon chiefly feed on the 

 Loranthus fruits are very small ; one 

 Dicceum minimum- Dicceum erythro- 

 rhynchum (Legge), is the smallest bird 

 in Ceylon; the other is Pachyglossa 

 vineens (Legge) =Prionochilus vincens 

 'Murray), a flower-pecker peculiar to 

 Ceylon. Of these, the former has, on 

 account of its assiduity in visiting-Lorem- 

 thus fruits, earned for itself in Ceylon 

 the name of the ' Parasitc-bird.' 



The smallness of the bird and the 

 largeness of the fruit may together con- 

 stitute the main reason why the bird 

 has adopted— as will be shown— the habit 

 of squeezing the seed out of the fruit 

 and rejecting the fruit-coat. The large 

 quantity of tannin which this fruit-coat 

 contains may also have operated to 

 produce this result. That the above- 

 mentioned birds have acquired the habit 

 of extracting the seeds is shown by the 

 following observations. Under a tree, 

 bearing a Loranthus bush in fruit, many 

 empty husks are to be found, and such 

 husks bear V-shaped marks of birds' 

 beaks. 1 have also seen a bird, Dicceum 

 minimum, perched on a Loranthus bush 

 sucking a seed, having rejected the husk. 

 This proceeding is doubtless a very 

 general one with birds. The ' Paddy- 

 bird ' in Ceylon extracts the rice-grain 

 and leaves the husk ; and I have seen a 

 Parrot " shuck " a pea-pod, extract the 

 peas, and reject the pod. 



Further, in none of the many birds I 

 shot and dissected, did the gut contain 

 a fruit-coat, though it was generally 

 quite distended with pulpy matter which 

 had been extracted from the fruit. That 

 this habit of squeezing out the seed 

 betokens a special love, on the part of 

 the birds, for Loranthus berries seems 

 shown by the fact that other birds, 

 which only visit the fruit when their 

 more usual food is scarce, have not 

 acquired the habit. Thus I shot a 

 common Bulbul (Chloropsis Jerdoni) in 

 whose crop were several whole fruits of 

 L. loniceroides. About a dozen ' Para- 

 site-birds ' were dissected ; in some pulp 

 only was found (pulp of L. loniceroides), 

 in others pulp with one seed, in others 

 pulp with as many as three seeds. 



Of the seeds so obtained, some (L. neel- 

 gherrensis) germinated successfully ; 

 others, however, were soft and rotten, 

 having been quite killed by the digestive 

 juices. 



Now, in the course of a morning, a bird 

 visits far more than three fruits ; indeed, 

 the assiduity of the bird in gorging 

 berries is remarkable ; yet three was the 

 greatest number found. Moreover, of 

 seeds swallowed, some are so attacked 

 by digestive juices as to be killed; thus 

 when, as not infrequently happens, 

 groups of seeds of Loranthus and Viscum 

 species are found mixed with birds 

 excrement, most are completely rotten. 



Hence probably the birds seek the 

 large fruits of such Loranthus species as 

 L. longiflorus, L. loniceroides, L- neel- 

 gherrensis, L. capitellalus, &c, primarily 

 for the pulp formed from the middle 

 layer of the fruit-coat ; but occasionally 

 the birds in their greed swallow the 

 seeds ; and of these, some are digested 

 to an extent to render them unfit for 

 germination, while possibly others pass 

 through the gut uninjured. If a reason 

 other than that of the large size of many 

 of the Ceylon species of Loranthus be 

 sought to account for the fact that the 

 birds generally avoid swallowing the 

 seeds, it may perhaps be found in 

 this, — that the endosperm and embryo of 

 such seed as those of L- neelgherrensis, 

 L. loniceroides, and L. longiflorus, and 

 probably of many others, are ex- 

 ceedingly rich in tannin. A curious 

 observation confirms the view to which 

 the above remarks point, viz., that the 

 birds get rid of the seeds by wiping or 

 striking their bills against branches or 

 other convenient objects. At the Hill 

 Garden of Hakgala (5,500 ft.) Loranthi 

 grow luxuriantly. On the single tele- 

 graph-wire there are every year hun- 

 dreds of seedlings of L- loniceroides, all 

 in early stages of germination. It can 

 hardly be supposed that the seeds arrive 

 at this anomalous position as a conse- 

 quence of being voided, but rather that 

 the birds free their beaks of them by 

 striking or rubbing against the wire. 



If due weight be given to the above- 

 enumerated considerations and obser- 

 vations, it will, I think, be conceded 

 that, at least in the majority of cases, 

 the seeds of the large species of Loran- 

 thus reach their hosts without having 

 passed through the alimentary canals of 

 birds, and that their distribution is asso- 

 ciated with an acquired habit on the 

 part of the birds. This acquired habit 

 consists in the birds first extracting the 

 seed from the fruit-covering, and second- 

 ly, rejecting the seed and fruit-wall, both 

 of which are rich in taninn, the bird's 

 object being to obtain the sweetish pulp 

 (which contains a little, but only a little 

 tannin); and thirdly, in the wiping-off 

 of the seeds which stick to the bill on a 

 convenient place, usually a branch. 



