778 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with their talons. Their sight is wonderful, enabling them to discover 

 their quarry at a great distance, and to strike it without error, not- 

 withstanding the velocity of their approach. The sense of smell would 

 seem remarkably developed in certain carrion-eating birds. The sec- 

 retary-bird kills the poisonous serpents which are its diet by kicking 

 them, while our domestic fowls scratch for a living. 



Fia. 8.— Tongue op Woodpecker. 



In variety of prehensile means mammals far surpass any equal 

 group of the animal kingdom. Owing to our familiarity, however, 

 these peculiarities seem less interesting ; but, if we could divest our- 

 selves of preknowledge, or see them with a new vision, we should be 

 astonished and delighted by the various contrivances and the curious 

 adaptations. The tongue is the chief or only prehensile organ of 

 many animals. Here belong the ox and all the cud-chewers. Of these 

 the giraffe is the strangest. Intended to browse, it has an extremely 

 long neck, mounted on equally long legs and shoulder-blades ; yet, 

 lest it should still fail of reaching its dinner, the tongue is proportion- 

 ately long and remarkably prehensile ; being able to select the sweet- 

 est foliage, or extend so slenderly at the tip as to enter a hole the size 

 of a quill. Its lingual dexterity is sometimes exercised to the discom- 

 fiture of visitors at the menagerie. The toothless ant-eater breaks down 

 the hard mounds of the ants or termites with its powerful claws, and 

 sweeps the insects into its mouth with an immensely long, worm-like 

 tongue ; or it may thrust the tongue directly into the ant-holes. The 

 insects adhere by means of a glutinous saliva, as in the case of the 

 toad. 



The hog uses his nose for getting food, and the star-nosed mole 

 has a similar contrivance. The lips are employed by the horse ; and 

 we find both nose and upper lip prolonged as a proboscis in the tapir 

 and shrew. But the elephant is, of course, the great example of im- 

 mense proboscis. The whole make-up of the animal is queer, and to 

 a stranger would be absurd. The small boy who described the ele- 

 phant as " a large beast with a tail at both ends " had the elements of 

 a naturalist. As the neck of the huge creature does not permit great 

 motion of the head, the trunk supplies the deficiency. The tusks are 

 also chiefly food-gatherers ; used as picks and spades for uprooting 

 trees and digging succulent roots. The tusks of the walrus are cer- 

 tainly locomotive and defensive organs, but it is suggested that per- 

 haps they are also used to raise algse from the rocks of the sea- 

 bottom. 



The greater number of mammals depend wholly upon the jaws 



