582 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 54. 



tongue in Podargus strigoides is certainly one of the most curious 

 found in the Class of Birds. 



The tongue of Steatomis caripensis (fig. 5) has been briefly de- 

 scribed by Garrod.i In two alcoholic specimens in the United 

 States National Museum collections the tongue is shaped like an 

 arrowhead with a rather elongate bluntly pointed tip, convex lateral 

 outlines, and spreading, somewhat slender pos- 

 terior processes that project beyond the hinder 

 border. The margins of these posterior proc- 

 esses are armed with soft, slender, backward 

 projecting papillae, and smaller papillae of the 

 same nature are found on the upper surfaces 

 of these projections. The arrangement of these 

 papillose points is not symmetrical and the 

 tongue is somewhat thickened basally, becom- 

 ing thin at the anterior end. In the specimen 

 figured (a male. Cat. No. 18309, U.S.N.M.) the 

 tongue measured 19.5 mm. along the sides by 

 12 mm. broa,d across the spreading base. These 



Fig. 5.— Tongue of Stea. 

 toknts caripensis (x2 

 Cat. No. 18309, U.S.N.M.) 



measurements are slightly in excess of those 



given by Garrod. 

 The remaining genera examined all belong in the family Capri- 

 mulgidae, and in all the tongue is small, more or less triangular in 

 form, with the posterior lateral margins and upper surface armed 

 with papillae of varying sizes. Various modifications of this general 

 type mark the different genera, as may be noted in the following 

 pages. Though the tongue is small in all these forms, it must be 

 considered that it plays a definite part in manipulating 

 food in swallowing; otherwise the development of the 

 basal papillae would be less marked. 



In a treatise on the anatomy of Phalaenoptilus 

 that species as " slender and pointed. Posteriorly it is 

 nitidus Miss M. E. Marshall,^ describes the tongue of 

 bifid and fimbriated." In a specimen at hand this 

 organ (fig. 6) is small, measuring 9.5 mm. long by 

 3 mm. broad. The postero-lateral spinose processes 

 are elongate and pointed. The lateral margins in out- 

 line are approximately straight lines. Spinose, back- 

 ward projecting papillae begin at a point anterior to the center and 

 become stronger and heavier toward the base of the tongue. The 

 upper surface of the tongue for its basal two-thirds is thickly set 

 with small horny papillosities, all projecting backward. Because of 



iProc. Zool. See. London, 1873, p. 531. 



2 A Study of the Anatomy of Phalaenoptilus Ridgway, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, vol. 

 44, 1905, p. 215. (See pi. 4, fig. 10.) 



Fig. 6.— Tongue 

 OF Phalaen- 

 optilus NITID- 

 US (X2. Cat- 

 No. 19146, U.S. 

 N.M.). 



