TORRENT-DUCK— TOT-0'ER-SEAS 975 



{Bull. U. S. Dept Agricult Orn. No. 7, p. 38), "coax" out of their 

 hiding-places the grubs which form its food. The sides and back 

 of the Tongue contain many Herbstian corpuscles, and according to 

 that gentleman the number and distribution of the hooks and soft 

 papillse vary much in closely-allied species, while the elongation of 

 the organ and the development upon it of the spines apparently 

 takes place during adolescence.^ 



In many groups of Birds, but chiefly among the Meliphagidx 

 (Honey-eater), Nectariniidx (Sun-bird) and Trochili (Humming- 

 bird) the horny sheath of the Tongue reaches its greatest develop- 

 ment (c/. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, pp. 62-69, pi. xvi.). In the last 

 group each side of it is bordered by a long thin lamella, the outer 

 edge of which curls up like a roll of paper, so as to form a right 

 and left tube ; while in the second group the inner or median 

 margin is laciniated or frayed out, and in the first group the sheath 

 continues splitting dichotomously, producing a complicated brush. 

 Unfortunately, and to the shame of observers, the precise way in 

 which these tongues are used is still imperfectly known. Provided 

 that the birds really eat honey, it is possible that the nectar of 

 flowers is sucked up by capillary attraction, and therefore that what 

 is thus taken is pressed out in the mouth ; but the stomach of 

 these birds almost always contains small insects and larvae, and it 

 seems possible that the Tongue may be used as a brush to dislodge 

 and collect insects, which are then nipped by the jaws, the margins 

 of which are, as in Meliphagidx and Nectariniidsc, finely serrated. 

 The same consideration applies to the Cxrebidx (QuiT-QUiT, Sugar- 

 bird) and to the Drepanididse (Drepanis). Some of the Fsittaci 

 (Lory and Nestor) possess a short brush-like fringe of soft papillx, 

 which possibly act as a tactile and suctorial apparatus. The Tongue 

 of the Rhamphastidx (Toucan) is about as long as the enormous 

 bill, but is very slender and narrow, not protusible, and having 

 the sides of the horny covering frayed out into numerous short 

 bristles. 



TORRENT-DUCK, a book-name given to birds of the South- 

 American genus Merganeffa and the Papuan Salvadorina, which 

 seem doubtfully referable to the Merging (Merganser). {Cf. 

 Salvadori, who places with them Hymenolxmus, supra p. 843, Cat. 

 B. Br. Mus. xxvii. p. 455.) 



TOT-0'ER-SEAS, a name by which Begukis cristatus (Goldcrest) 

 is said to be known on some parts of the east coast, where it often 

 arrives in countless numbers Avhen on its autumnal migration. 



1 A minute account of the "Woodpecker's Tongue is given by Prince Ludwig 

 Ferdinand of Bavaria {Sitzungsher. K. Bayr. Akad. 1884, pp. 183-192, figs. 1-10, 

 and in his grand work Zur Anatomie der Zunge, 4to, Miinchen : 1884 — the part 

 relating to Birds being pp. 67-76, and pis. xxiv. xxv. ). 



