m2 
GEOGKAPHICAL DISTEIBUTION. 
Chap. XT. 
But the following fact is more important: the crops of 
birds do not secrete gastric juice, and do not in the 
least injure, as I know by trial, the germination of 
seeds; now after a bird has found and devoured a large 
supply of food, it is positively asserted that all the grains 
do not pass into the gizzard for 12 or even 18 hours. 
A bird in this interval might easily be blown to the dis¬ 
tance of 500 miles, and hawks are known to look out 
for tired bnds, and the contents of their torn crops 
might thus readily get scattered. Mr. Brent informs me 
that a friend of his had to give up flying carrier-pigeons 
from France to England, as the hawks on the English 
coast destroyed so many on their arrival. Some hawks 
and owls bolt their prey whole, and after an interval 
of from twelve to twenty hours, disgorge pellets, which, 
as I know from experiments made in the Zoological 
Gardens, include seeds capable of germination. Some 
seeds of the oat, wheat, millet, canary, hemp, clover, 
and beet germinated after having been from twelve to 
twenty-one hours in the stomachs of different birds of 
prey; and two seeds of beet grew after having been 
thus retained for .two days and fourteen hours. Fresh¬ 
water fish, I find, eat seeds of many land and water 
plants: fish are frequently devoured by birds, and thus 
the seeds might be transported from place to place. I 
forced many kinds of seeds into the stomachs of dead 
fish, and then gave their bodies to fishing-eagles, storks, 
and pelicans; these birds after an interval of many 
hours, either rejected the seeds in pellets or passed 
them in their excrement; and several of these seeds 
retained their power of germination. Certain seeds, 
however, were always killed by this process. 
Although the beaks and feet of birds are generally 
quite clean, I can show that earth sometimes adheres 
to them: in one instance I removed tw^enty-two grains 
