"Although the beaks and feet of birds are generally clean, earth sometimes adheres to them. In one case I removed sixty-one grains, and in another case twenty-two grains, of dry argillaceous earth from the foot of a partridge, and in the earth there was a pebble as large as the seed of a vetch. Here is a better case: the leg of a woodcock was sent me by a friend, with a little cake of dry earth attached to the shank weighing only nine grains, and this contained a seed of the toad-rush (Juncus bufonis), which germinated and flowered. . . . Professor Newton sent me the leg of a red-legged partridge (Caccabis rufa), which had been wounded and could not fly, with a ball of earth adhering to it weighing six and a half ounces. The earth had been kept for three years, but, when broken, watered, and placed under a bell-glass, no less than eighty-two plants sprang from it; these consisted of twelve monocotyledons, including the common oat and at least one kind of grass, and of seventy dicotyledons which consisted, judging from the young leaves, of at least three distinct species. With such facts before us, can we doubt that the many birds which are annually blown by gales across great spaces of ocean, and which annually migrate—for instance, the millions of quail across the Mediterranean—must occasionally transport a few seeds in dirt adhering to their feet or beaks?"
So, too, animals perform a part in this grand work. Many seeds are furnished with hooks or prickles of various kinds, which enable them to cling to the hair and wool of animals. Take Lyell's illustration of the hunted deer as an instance of how this work could be performed: "A deer has strayed from the herd when browsing on some rich pasture, when suddenly he is alarmed by the approach of his foe. He instantly takes to flight, darting through many a thicket and swimming across many a river and lake. The seeds of the herbs and shrubs which have adhered to his smoking flanks, and even many a thorny spray which has been torn off and fixed itself in his hairy coat, are brushed off again in other thickets and copses. Even on the spot where the victim is devoured, many of the seeds which he has swallowed immediately before the chase may be left on the ground uninjured and ready to spring up in a new soil."[1]
As Lyell remarks in this quotation, many of the seeds which animals swallow may pass through the stomach and still retain vitality enough to sprout after being left on the ground. Instances of this can be seen in almost every barnyard, where the grains of corn and oats dropped in the excrement of cows and horses sprout, if not picked up by the barnyard fowls. Farmers know well, too, that a field manured with fresh manure is likely to produce not a few weeds along with its legitimate crop.
Even such insignificant forms of life as insects may and do perform a part in the transportation of seeds. From a small packet of
- ↑ "Principles of Geology," vol. ii., p. 397.
