TASTE. 255 



will devour flies of every sort, will not touch a spi- 

 der, and while it will eat almost any smooth cater- 

 pillar (Phlogophora meticulosa, Mamestra brassicce, 

 tfc.),it will not touch those of the cabbage butterfly 

 (Pontia brassica), which the fauvette devoured with 

 avidity. Neither of these birds again, nor the night- 

 ingale, will touch an earthworm, of which the red- 

 breast is very fond. No bird will touch the cater- 

 pillar of the magpie moth. 



These facts, and many more of a similar kind, 

 which we could easily enumerate, fully authorize 

 us, we think, to conclude, that some birds at least 

 are endowed with the faculty of taste ; though this 

 is expressly or partially denied by certain authors 

 distinguished for accuracy of observation, such as 

 Colonel Montagu and M. Blumenbach, because in 

 several species " the tongue is horny, stiff, not sup- 

 plied with nerves, and, consequently, unfit for an 

 organ of taste." But it does not follow, because 

 the tongue in most other animals is the chief organ 

 of taste, that birds with a horny tongue destitute of 

 nerves cannot discriminate their food by taste, since 

 other parts of the mouth may perform this office ; 

 an inference rendered more probable from the 

 structure and texture of the mouth, and from what 

 takes place in man and quadrupeds. 



Now all birds possess a tongue, though in some 

 species, such as the pelican (Onocrotalus pelecanus, 

 ALDROVAND), it is so very small that its very exist- 

 ence has been denied by several good observers ; 

 among whom, Willoughby says, " I could not see 

 any tongue ; but where the root of the tongue was 

 fixed I observed certain perforate bodies :" and Ray 

 adds, " neither could Faber, who saw this same 

 bird afterward at Rome, find the tongue, though he 

 searched diligently for it."* The gulls (Larida, 

 LEACH), and the cormorant (Carlo carmoranus, MEY- 



* Ray's Willoughby, Ornith., p* 327. 



