Vol. XI 

 1S94 



Lucas, Tongue of the Cape May Warbler. I A.7 



tions in its details, and cannot be too surely relied on, since it 

 is liable to be copied by outsiders. 



Next as to tbe relationship between food and tongue. The Sand- 

 wich Islands Drepanididae have a most perfect tubular tongue, 

 such as one might make on a gigantic scale by curling up the 

 edges of a long slip of paper until they meet, and then tying them 

 firmly in place. These birds (some of them at least) have, like 

 the Meliphagidae, a suctorial apparatus, so that if they do not 

 feed on nectar it is not for lack of ability to do so. And yet some 

 of these birds, as their stomachs testify, feed on fruit and some 

 on spiders and insects. Certhiola has a brushy, twisted tongue, 

 such as we find in some of the Meliphagidae, but while these last 

 are said to be honey-suckers par excellence, Certhiola seems to 

 have a decided liking for insects. 



In the genus Ccereba (or Abelorhina) as well as in Glossoptila, 

 the tongue seems admirably fashioned for catching insects or 

 sucking honey, and these birds feed on berries. So with the 

 Hummingbirds, which have a good suctorial tongue and yet feed 

 principally on insects, although they may perhaps have honey for 

 dessert. 



Just here I wish to forestall a possible criticism. It is quite 

 likely that in the cases just mentioned the birds may feed at some 

 seasons on fruit, and at others on insects, but the point I would 

 make is that even if they do, the tongue is no certain guide to the 

 nature of the birds' food. 1 



Coming finally to JDendroica tigrina, whose tongue has been 

 used as a peg on which to hang this paper, if any one will take 

 the trouble to compare the figure accompanying this paper — 

 which was made from a specimen collected by my friend Mr. 

 William Palmer — with figure 5, page 163, 'Review of North 

 American Birds,' he will find that they do not agree with one 

 another. If comparison is made with figure 4 of the same work, 

 it will be seen that, making allowance for the personal equation 

 of the two draughtsmen, the figures agree very well. If the 

 tongues of Ccereba herein figured (Fig. 5-7) he compared 



1 Mr. F. M. Chapman (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. VI, p. 26) says that in Trinidad 

 Arbelorhina ccertdea and A. cyanea feed on the blossoms of the bois immortel, but he 

 does not say that he examined the stomachs of any birds. Query : Were the birds after 

 nectar or insects? 



