At 04:45 PM 11/20/2009, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>So if a bird, rather than a tropical seed, was found far from home
>with husk on its claws, then the obvious, equally silly idea, is
>that the swallow floated ashore on a coconut.

No, no, no, it couldn't have survived all that time floating on a
coconut, which you will recall has no stability whatsoever when
floating as well as extremely limited supplies of food and fresh
water.  Obviously it would have had to fly with the coconut which
could be instantly told by the damage to the wing primary feathers
due to prolonged supersonic operation.  You must have been hanging
about with the man from the Ministry of Housinge to get such a silly idea.

;-)
d