34 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



woodpecker, you might ask the teacher to dissect 

 the head, so all the children in the room could 

 see exactly how the tongue works. You would 

 find that it is divided in the throat into a pair of 

 slender gristle bones. These bones pass clear 

 over the back of the skull, coining down in front 

 to beneath the nostrils. A narrow strip of 

 muscle goes along with them, to help them move 

 back and forth. So, when a woodpecker pleases, 

 he is able to stretch his tongue far beyond his 

 beak. 



And the bird has use enough for such a tongue. 

 It does its best work in the dark. It is so sensi- 

 tive, we might almost conclude the bird smells 

 with it. If it finds an insect too small for the 

 barbs to get good hold of, the woodpecker wets the 

 tip of its tongue with saliva from its mouth. Of 

 course the insect sticks, and comes out of its 

 hiding-place, just as the woodpecker would have 

 it. It is on the same principle that you wet the 

 end of your finger to pick up a very small flat 

 seed. 



The saliva of the woodpecker is made after a 

 sticky fashion; and the more the insect kicks 

 against the "tanglefoot" paste, the closer it sticks 

 to the tongue of the bird. 



But the tongue would be of little service with- 



