66 STBTTCTTTBAL PECULIAEITIES. 



of paper. I conjecture that the nectar of flowers 

 is pumped up the tubes, and that minute insects 

 are caught, when in the flowers, in these spoon- 

 like tips, their minute limbs being, perhaps, en- 

 tangled in the fimbriae, when the tongue is re- 

 tracted into the beak, and the insects are swal- 

 lowed by the ordinary process, as doubtless are 

 those captured with the beak in flight. I do not 

 thoroughly understand the mode by which liquids 

 are taken up by a Humming-bird's tongue, 

 though I have carefully watched the process. 

 If syrup be presented to one in a quill, the 

 tongue is protruded for about half-an-inch, the 

 beak resting in the pen as it is held horizontal : 

 there is a slight, but rapid and constant projec- 

 tion and retraction of the tubes, and the liquor 

 disappears very fast, perhaps by capillary attrac- 

 tion, perhaps by a sort of pumping, certainly not 

 by licking." 



It is by a pumping or sucking action, as we 

 have every reason to believe, that nectar or 

 fluids are absorbed by the tubular tongue oJ 

 these birds, and it is most probable that the fim- 

 briated tip is bedewed by a glutinous secretion 

 a secretion used in many instances as the 

 means of compacting together the materials of 

 which the external crust of the nest is composed. 

 This secretion is most probably afforded by the 

 salivary glands. The tongue of the woodpecker, 

 which in the mechanism required for projection 

 and retraction, closely resembles that of the 



