nts: 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
twenty-two grains of dry argillaceous earth from one foot of a
partridge, and in this earth there was a pebble quite as large as the
seed of a vetch. Thus seeds might occasionally be transported to great
distances; for many facts could be given showing that soil almost
everywhere is charged with seeds. Reflect for a moment on the millions
of quails which annually cross the Mediterranean; and can we doubt that
the earth adhering to their feet would sometimes include a few minute
seeds? But I shall presently have to recur to this subject.

As icebergs are known to be sometimes loaded with earth and stones, and
have even carried brushwood, bones, and the nest of a land-bird, I can
hardly doubt that they must occasionally have transported seeds from
one part to another of the arctic and antarctic regions, as suggested by
Lyell; and during the Glacial period from one part of the now temperate
regions to another. In the Azores, from the large number of the species
of plants common to Europe, in comparison with the plants of other
oceanic islands nearer to the mainland, and (as remarked by Mr. H. C.
Watson) from the somewhat northern character of the flora in comparison
with the latitude, I suspected that these islands had been partly
stocked by ice-borne seeds, during the Glacial epoch. At my request Sir
C. Lyell wrote to M. Hartung to inquire whether he had observed erratic
boulders on these islands, and he answered that he had found large
fragments of granite and other rocks, which do not occur in the
archipelago. Hence we may safely infer that icebergs formerly landed
their rocky burthens on the shores of these mid-ocean islands, and it
is at least possible that they may have brought thither the seeds of
northern plants.

Considering that the several above means of transport, and that several
other means, which witho