NO. 2251. 



THE ANATOMY OF NYCTIBIUS—WETMORE. 



581 



Fig. 3.— Tongue of Nyctib- 

 lus griseu3 abbotti (x2. 

 Cat. No. 225851, U.S.N.M.). 



sharply pointed, but bend readily. The upper surface of tlie tongue 

 appears smooth to the unaided eye, but when examined with a hand 

 lens it is found to have a few minute spines scattered over its sur- 

 face. The tongue measured 20 mm. long and 

 the posterior prongs were 12 mm. apart. 



Examination of other species available be- 

 longing to the suborder Nycticoraciae shows 

 four main types of tongue structure in this 

 group. The material available includes the 

 following: Steatornis caripensis^ Podargtis 

 strigoides, Nyctibius griseus, Cho7'deiles acufi- 

 pennis, Chordeiles virginianus^ Phalaenoptilus 

 nitidus, Nyctidromus alhicolUs, C aprimivlgus 

 europaeus^ and Setochalcis vocifera. The form 

 of tongue peculiar to Nyctibius griseus has been 

 described above. Of the remaining forms Po- 

 dargus (fig. 4) possesses a tongue most remark- 

 able in form. This organ has been briefly de- 

 scribed by Beddard^ as "a curious tough but transparent mem- 

 branous organ," but no other reference to its peculiarities has been 

 found in literature available. The tongue in Podargus is elongate 

 and much larger in proportion to the size of the mouth cavity than 

 in other forms examined. The anterior end 

 of the hyoidean apparatus forms a thickened, 

 pointed projection in the tongue base, as shown 

 by the line x in the text figure. Anterior to 

 this strong base the tongue is thin and trans- 

 lucent, being not much thicker than a sheet of 

 ordinary writing paper. The lateral outlines 

 of this portion are slightly convex, and are 

 somewhat irregular, due to wear of the thin, 

 delicate margins. The tip forms an obtuse 

 point. At the base the tongue is dilated on 

 either side, and terminates in two pointed pro- 

 jections. The margins of these projections are 

 armed with spinose papillae projecting back- 



GUS STEIGOIDES (ABOUT NAT- i , IX:' L J & ^ 



URAL SIZE. Cat. No. 19361, ward, which continue around on the inner side. 

 lo''.^L:i^'':.::Z These papillose points are not symmetrically 

 STRONG BASE AND THIN, PA- dcvelopcd ou the opposlug side. The base of 

 PEE-LIKE TIP. ^^^ tongue lies only a short distance in front 



of the glottis. It seems questionable whether the thin anterior por- 

 tion of the tongue can serve any purpose in feeding, although that 

 is a point to be settled only by observation of living specimens. The 



Fig. 4.— Tongue of Podar- 



1 Structure and Classification of Birds, 1898, p. 2.34. 



