1016 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



Graminivorous birds either need, or find it advantageous to have, some 

 special device for getting seeds or for husking them before they are swal- 

 lowed, and these have fleshy tongues, which, together with the char- 

 acter of the tip, must enable them to hold seeds well while removing 

 the husk. Apparently the delicacy of the tongue is no direct criterion 

 of the quality of the work done by it, for the cow bunting, which cleans 

 small seeds most dexterously, is by no means remarkable for the char- 

 acter of its tongue, and, on the other hand, it is not easy to see why the 

 song sparrow should have a tongue so finely fringed at the tip. 



Such scoop-like tongues as those of the cross-bill and goldfinch (Plate 

 1, figs. C and 11) seem to bear a direct relation to the procuring of food 

 and to be specially designed for extracting seeds. Were thistles in 

 seed the year around, the tongue of Spinus tristis would be a clear case 

 of adaptation, for it appears admirably fitted either for gathering thistle 

 seeds or for removing the husks after they are gathered. However, Mr. 

 Palmer tells me that the gullet of the goldfinch often contains finely-com- 

 minuted food, almost in the condition of dough, and the tongue is very 

 likely the instrument by which this state is brought about. Knowing 

 that the shore lark feeds largely on small grass seeds, the tongue is seen 

 to be a nice little scoop for collecting them, while the miniature pitch- 

 forks of the titmice (Plate 1, fig. 14) are equally good instruments for 

 picking spiders, eggs of insects, and similar food, out of the crevices 

 into which these little birds are perpetually prying, although it would 

 apparently be more efficient could it be protruded farther. 



The brush-tongued birds, the South American Cocrehidw and the 

 honeysuckers of the Sandwich Islands and Australia, are good exam- 

 ples of similarity of tongue structure in very different birds due to 

 adaptation for a certain kind of food or method of obtaining it. These 

 birds frequent flowering trees, either for the nectar of the blossoms or 

 for the insects which lurk therein, or for both, and their tongues are 

 all more or less extensile, and brushy at the tip. Whether the liquid 

 is actually sucked up or whether it is dipped up by the tongue tip as 

 by a swab, the result attained is the same. 



Some of the brush tougued birds certainly eat insects and spiders, 

 but the tongue would seem to be as well adapted for sweeping up these 

 as for sucking up sweets. Moreover, it should be remembered that a 

 tongue may be a special adaptation for a given kind of food, procured 

 at certain seasons of the year, and therefore specially desirable only 

 for a short time. Or a bird may i)refer a particular kind of food, and 

 yet eat something else when that is not to be had, just as the hairy 

 and downy woodpeckers have tongues specially adapted for spearing 

 grubs, and still eat beechnuts. We know that humming birds are 

 fond of sweets, and we are equally certain that the bulk of their food 

 consists of insects,^ and if they dine on one and make their dessert of the 



1 Lucas, Frederic A. The Food of Humming Birds. The Auk, X, No. 4, October, 

 1893; pp. 311-315. 



