Concerning Birds' Tongues 



for spearing grubs in their burrows or coaxing ants out of their 

 nests, the tips are peculiarly modified, as well as the hindmost part 

 of the tongue. In such active grub-hunting birds as the Hairy and 

 Downy Woodpeckers the tongue tip is made into a many-barbed 

 spear, for all the world like the spears and arrrows in use among 

 tha natives of the Solomon Islands. 



The Flicker, on the other hand, which uses its tongue like a 

 probe, has only one or two little barbs, at the very tip, and relies 

 mainly on gluing ants and other small game to his tongue ^^ 

 by the very viscid saliva secreted by the large salivary glands. |f| 

 All Woodpeckers, however, with which we are acquainted a/ | 

 have the upper surface of the tongue thickly beset with 

 minute, horny points, directed backward. The Sap-sucker has 

 no barbs on the tip of the tongue, but instead a little brush ; 

 moreover, this bird has the shortest, least extensible tongue 

 of all Woodpeckers, and must long ago have given up spear- 

 ing grubs for a living. It is something of a question whether 

 the little brush is used for swabbing up sap, or whether it 

 serves to direct the sap from the little pits where it ac- 

 cumulates into the bird's mouth. The former use seems the 

 most probable, as those who have watched the Sap-suckers 

 closel)'^ tell us that the tongue is moved rapidly backward 

 and forward. 



From what has just been said, it can readily be seen that ^he brush 

 among Woodpeckers, the relations between food and tongue of the 



, J 1 , , 1 , SAP-SUCKER 



are very clear, and we may be pretty sure that whenever 

 we come upon an odd-appearing tongue there is, did we but know 

 it, some trick of taking or manipulating food to account for it. And 

 it is suggested that the readers of Bird-Lore improve every oppor- 

 tunity to carefully observe the manner in which even the commonest 

 birds take their food, in order to throw all possible light upon the 

 reasons for the many shapes of birds' tongues. 



