The Polynesian Fruit Pigeon, Globicera pacifica, Its Food and Digestive Apparatus
1924; Oxford University Press; Volume: 41; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/4074492
ISSN1938-4254
Autores Tópico(s)Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
ResumoIT was probably John Murray (Proceedings of the Zool. Soc., p. 737, 1877) who first drew attention to the unusual anatomical construction of the gizzard of Carpophaga [Globicera], as shown in two specimens of C. latrans taken on Kandavu, Fiji, during the voyage of the 'Challenger.' His notes on this subject are, in part, as follows:-Stomach contained the fruit of some tree unknown to me. The coat of the stomach had hard papilla-like ossifications of a circular form arranged in two or three rows. The material was submitted to A. H. Garrod, Prosector to the London Zoological Society, whose report (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1878, p. 738) furnishes interesting reading. Of the digestive apparatus he remarks that the thin-walled and capacious crop contained only one object, a complete fruit, subsequently identified as that of Onocarpus vitiensi8, one of the Anacardiaciae. Parenthetically this tree, as described by Seeman (Flora Vitien8i8, p. 176), is 60 feet high, with large, oblong leaves and a curious fruit, somewhat resembling the seed of a walnut. Garrod pointed out that for the attrition and crushing of this hard and compact nut and its capsule a modification of the gizzard-walls of this Fruit Pigeon has been necessary, although the organ itself is not developed to anything like the extent one notices in Gallinae or Anseres, but is small, and has its muscular walls comparatively thin. For effective grinding of the ingested food the bird depends upon quite another agency, as set forth by Garrod in describing the stomach mucosa:- Instead of being smooth, or plicated, as is usually the case, its surface is raised into horny cones which closely resemble in appearance the tubercules for the attachment of the spines of the echinoderm Cidari. He further describes these conical processes as horny, erect and transparent when sectioned. The diameter of the larger (and more numerous) averaged 7 mm. at the base; their height was about 4 mm. The smallest conie was as high as the largest (and
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