Chap. XII. 
FEESH-WATEK PKODUCTIOKS. 
387 
of many kinds, and were altogether 537 in number; 
and yet the viscid mud was all contained in a breakfast 
cup! Considering these facts, I think it would be an 
inexplicable circumstance if water-birds did not trans¬ 
port the seeds of fresh-water plants to vast distances, 
and if consequently the range of these plants was not 
very great. The same agency may have come into 
play with the eggs of some of the smaller fresh-water 
animals. 
Other and unknown agencies probably have also 
played a part. I have stated that fresh-water fish eat 
some kinds of seeds, though they reject many other 
kinds after having swallowed them; even small fish 
swallow seeds of moderate size, as of the yellow water- 
lily and Potamogeton. Herons and other birds, century 
after century, have gone on daily devouring fish; they 
then take flight and go to other waters, or are blown 
across the sea; and we have seen that seeds retain their 
power of germination, when rejected in pellets or in 
excrement, many hours afterwards. When I saw the 
great size of the seeds of that fine water-lily, the 
Nelumbium, and remembered Alph. de Candolle’s re¬ 
marks on this plant, I thought that its distribution 
must remain quite inexplicable; but Audubon states 
that he found the seeds of the great southern water- 
lily (probably, according to Dr. Hooker, the Nelumbium 
luteum) in a heron’s stomach; although I do not know 
the fact, yet analogy makes me believe that a heron 
flying to another pond and getting a hearty meal of 
fish, would probably reject from its stomach a pellet 
containing the seeds of the Nelumbium undigested; 
or the seeds might be dropped by the bird whilst 
feeding its young, in the same way as fish are known 
sometimes to be dropped. 
In considering these several means of distribution, 
s 2 
