336 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
wild nutmeg, though doubts have arisen as to whether it is not the 
outer or fleshy substance alone that affords them nourishment, and 
some travellers have asserted that the nut itself is voided whole. 
I am unable to refer to recent observations on this point. Possi- 
bly the particular pigeons now in question may belong to fruit- 
eating and not to grain-eating species. The fact that the nutmegs 
are swallowed whole is undoubted, however, and it is of special in- 
terest as bearing on the question of *‘ ballast,” to which allusion 
has previously been made. An English writer has expressed his 
surprise, in commenting on these large nutmeg-eating pigeons, 
with the remark that ‘‘ tame pigeons in England are often choked 
with small horse-beans.” But Audubon has said of the passenger- 
pigeon of this country, ‘‘ Whilst feeding, their avidity is at times 
so great that in attempting to swallow a large acorn or nut they 
are seen gasping for a long while, as if in the agonies of suffoca- 
tion.” So also Mr. Jefferies,* writing of the environs of London, 
says, ‘*‘ Rooks come to the oaks in crowds for the acorns; wood- 
pigeons are even more fond of them, and from their crops quite 
a handful may sometimes be taken when shot in the trees... . 
Never was there such a bird to eat as the wood-pigeon.” 
* R. Jefferies, ‘‘ Nature Near London,” London, 1883, p. 177. 
