ON THE 



DIFFUSION 



OF THE SEEDS OF IVY. 



165 



rous, and contains a certain harmony, which is pleasing, and flatters 

 the ear, without any mixture of that disagreeable, piercing, shrill, and 

 plaintive tone, which is peculiar to the generality of birds of prey. 



The male and female do not separate, and with the best under- 

 standing share whatever either takes in fishing or hunting. They 

 construct their eyry on the tops of trees or among rocks : it is made 

 precisely in the same manner as the griffard's, except that it is furnished 

 on the inside with soft materials, such as feathers, wool, and the like, 

 upon which two or three eggs, of a perfect whiteness, and of a form 

 resembling the turkey's, but larger, are deposited. 



The colonists of the Cape of Good Hope, call this bird the great 

 fisher (groote-vis-vanger), or white fisher (ivitte-vis-vanger). 



I heard the vociferous eagle but once, in the vicinity of False Bay ; 

 so that this bird appears very seldom in the neighbourhood of the 

 Cape. About sixty or eighty leagues from this, I began to see it com- 

 monly, but the place in which it is in the greatest abundance, is Lagoa 

 Bay. It seems, also, that the vociferous eagle is found at Nigritia ; 

 for we may say the same of it, as Gaby relates of an eagle, which 

 he mentions under the name of Nonette. " It has," he says, " the 

 colour of a Carmelite's habit, with his white scapulary." This short 

 description is certainly much more suitable to the vociferous eagle, 

 than to the baldbuzzard of Europe, to which BufFon has injudiciously 

 applied it. 



ON THE DIFFUSION OF THE SEEDS OF IVY. 



BY RURICOLA. 



My attention has been recently drawn to a large number of seeds, 

 of an oval shape, and exceeding the size of hemp-seed, scattered 

 under the bay trees in my garden. My first supposition was, that 

 they were the produce of the bay trees, the seeds of which, however, 

 are very different both in shape and size. On further observation, 

 I perceived the same seeds, but not so plentifully, under other trees, 

 and at last, on opening some of the ivy-berries, which abound in 

 the garden, but at some distance from the trees in question, I was 

 satisfied of the quarter whence they came - } each berry containing 

 four seeds, such as I have described above. I may add, that some 

 small plants of ivy were found also to be growing here and there 

 among the seeds, two or three inches high. The garden is the 

 haunt of many of the smaller birds, especially house-sparrows, 

 hedge-chanters, red-breasts, chaffinches, blue tits, and occasionally 



