TORRENT-DUCK—TOT-O'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 
papillz 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 Meliphagide 
(HONEY-EATER), Nectarinudx (SUN-BIRD) and Tvochili (HUMMING- 
BIRD) the horny sheath of the Tongue reaches its greatest develop- 
ment (¢f. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, pp. 62-69, pl. 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 larve, 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 Meliphagide and Nectariniide, finely serrated. 
The same consideration applies to the Cxrebide (QUIT-QUIT, SUGAR- 
BIRD) and to the Drepanididx (DREPANIS). Some of the Psittaci 
(Lory and NEsToR) possess a short brush-like fringe of soft papille, 
which possibly act as a tactile and suctorial apparatus. The Tongue 
of the Rhamphastide (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 Merganetta and the Papuan Salvadorina, which 
seem doubtfully referable to the Mergine (MERGANSER). (Cf. 
Salvadori, who places with them Hymenolemus, supra p. 843, Cat. 
B. Br. Mus. xxvii. p. 455.) 
TOT-O'ER-SEAS, a name by which Regulus cristatus (GOLDCREST) 
is said to be known on some parts of the east coast, where it often 
arrives in countless numbers when on its autumnal migration. 
1 A minute account of the Woodpecker’s Tongue is given by Prince Ludwig 
Ferdinand of Bavaria (Sitzungsber. 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 pls. xxiv. xxv.). 
