Small birds as well as lusty pigeons,
spiders and all manner of insects; flies, bees, beetles, moths and
mosquitoes, as well as the seeds of other trees are ensnared. Spiders
are frequently seen sharing the fate of the flies, fast to seeds in the
humiliating posture in which Br'er Fox found Br'er Rabbit on the occasion
of the interview with the Tar Baby.
Insectivorous plants am common enough in Australia; but the "Ahm-moo,"
tree does not appear to make use of the carcases of its victims, though
it kills on an exceptionally extensive scale.
On some of the islands where the tree is plentiful numbers of pigeons
meet a dreary fate every season. The maturity of the seeds coincides
with the hatching out of the young, and inexperienced birds pay dearly
for their inexperience. The natural glutin is produced while the slim,
fluted, inch-long seeds are green, but its virtue remains even after the
whole panicle has withered and has fallen. So tenacious is it and
prompt, that should a panicle as it whirls downward touch the leaves of
lower branches of the parent, or of any neighbouring tree, it sticks and
becomes a pendant swaying trap in a new position.
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