rge supply of food, it is
positively asserted that all the grains do not pass into the gizzard for
twelve or even eighteen hours. A bird in this interval might easily be
blown to the distance of five hundred miles, and hawks are known to look
out for tired birds, and the contents of their torn crops might thus
readily get scattered. 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 the power of germination.
Certain seeds, however, were always killed by this process.

Locusts are sometimes blown to great distances from the land. I myself
caught one 370 miles from the coast of Africa, and have heard of others
caught at greater distances. The Rev. R.T. Lowe informed Sir C. Lyell
that in November, 1844, swarms of locusts visited the island of Madeira.
They were in countless numbers, as thick as the flakes of snow in the
heaviest snowstorm, and extended upward as far as could be seen with a
telescope. During two or three days they slowly careered round and round
in an immense ellipse, at least five or six miles in diameter, and at
night alighted on the taller trees, which were completely coated with
them. They then disappeared over the sea, as suddenly as they had
appeared, and have not since visited the island. Now, in parts of Natal
it is believed by some farmers, though on insufficient evidence, that
injurious seeds are introduced into their grass-land in the dung left
by the great flights of locusts which often visit that country. In
consequence of this belief Mr. Weale sent me in a letter a small packet
of the dried pellets, out of which I extracted und