THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS: HIS TONGUE 101 



what was done with these two long branches, 

 fully three quarters of the entire length of the 

 bones? They are too sharply curved to pass 

 down the bird's throat, and, not being jointed, 

 they cannot be doubled back in his mouth. 

 They were 

 tucked away 

 very neatly 

 and curiously. 

 As the hyoid 

 or tongue-bone 



lies m the Skull of Woodpecker, showing- bones of tongue. 



in n n f It if a "" Upper end of windpipe and gullet. 



branches diverge just in front of the gullet, and, 

 traveling along the inner sides of the fork of 

 the lower jaw, pass up over the top of the skull, 

 looking in their sheath of muscles like two tiny 

 whipcords. But still the bones are too long by 

 perhaps half an inch for the place they occupy, 

 and the ends must be neatly disposed of. Usu- 

 ally both pass to the right nasal opening and 

 along the hollow of the upper mandible. Very 

 rarely they may curl down around the eyeball in 

 a spiral spring. So when the flicker thrusts out 

 his tongue he feels the pull in the end of his 

 nose, for the tip of the tongue being run out, the 

 long slender bones are drawn out of their hiding- 

 places, down over the skull until they lie flat 



