1 86 General Notes. [^p^,^, 



of Birds in the British Museum,' the latter bv Messrs. Salvin and Godman 

 in the ' Biologia Centrafi-Americana.' In either case the name is 

 antedated by Certhia mexicafia Gmelin, Sjst. Nat., I, 1788, 480. Gmelin's 

 bird, "C. rubra, gutture viridi, remigum apice cierulescenti," is the 

 Certhia rubra mexicana of Brisson (Aves, III, 651), a species not easily 

 identitiable, but certainly not a Certhia (perhaps one of the red species of 

 Mvzomela). As no other name has been proposed for the Mexican 

 Creeper, the bird (No. 726^ of the A. O. U. Check-List) may stand as 

 Certhia familiaris alticola. — Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., Washington, D. C. 



A New Family of Birds. — In revising the North American Finches 

 and Tanagers Mr. Ridgway has found it necessary to establish a new 

 family for the reception of the members of the genus Procnias. This 

 distinction is certainly warranted by the cranial characters of the genus, 

 the skull, among other things, being notable from the shape of the 

 palatines and total absence of transpalatine processes. The head and 

 skull of Procnias, it may be remembered, suggest those of a Swallo\y, 

 but the resemblance is purely superficial, the skull structurally resem- 

 bling that of a Tanager more than it does that of a Swallow. — F. A. 

 LuCA.s, Washington, D. C. 



The Tongues of Birds. — Ilerr Schenkling-Prdydt contributes an inter- 

 esting article on the tongues of birds to the Noyember number of the 

 'Zoologische Garten," although some of his statements must not be too 

 implicitly trusted. Such, for example, are the remarks that the tongue of 

 the Woodpecker is not used as a spear, but as a " lime twig " to which 

 insects are stuck by the yiscous saliva, and that it is an organ of incom- 

 parable pliancy, feeling about in all directions. 



Now, as a matter of fact, the structure of the Woodpecker's tongue is 

 such as to render it, for its length and slenderness, extremely rigid, and 

 while the Flicker undoubtedly draws ants out of ant-hills by means of the 

 sticky mucous with which the tongue is plentifully besmeared, yet there 

 can be no doubt that the barbed tip seryes, like a delicate eel spear, to 

 coax larva- out of their hiding places in trees. Herr Prevdt is probably 

 not acquainted \vith our Sapsucker or he would have called attention to 

 the peculiar modification by Avhich the tongue is rendered an admirable 

 swab for collecting syrup. 



The tongues of graminivorous birds are said to be often arrow-shaped, 

 or awl-shaped, a term which certainly does not apply to any of our North 

 American Finches, in which the tongue is rather thick and fleshy, and 

 slightly bifid or brushy at the tip, being so constructed as to play an 

 important part in husking seeds. 



Herr Pr^y6t decidedly overestimates the proba])Ic taxonomic \alue of 

 the tongue, for no other organ seems to be so subject to variation ; no 

 two species of North American Sparrows that have come under my 

 observation have the tongues exactly alike, while two such near neigh- 



