Till: WOODPECKEB8 



the long, stiff, pointed tail feathers, which provide the necessary 

 support for the body while the beak is performing its function of pick- 

 axe. That the peculiar qualities of the tail feathers are intimately 

 associated with the work of wood-hewing, and not merely with 

 I i in I ling, seems to be shown by the fact that the little nuthatch, which 

 1^ f\cit more r\|irrt as a cliiiilu-r. lias small. soft tail leathers. On tin- 

 other hand, the tree-creeper, which is not a wood-hewer, has the tail 

 feathers of a woodpecker ! Herein are contradictory facts which, so 

 far, have not been explained. 



Among the internal structures which call for comment, the tongue 

 is the most remarkable. This, as is well known, is of great length, 

 cylindrical, more or less barbed at the tip, and capable of being pro- 

 truded for some considerable distance beyond the beak, when it is 

 covered with the copious secretions of a pair of large salivary glands 

 lying beneath and on either side of the lower jaw. These glands 

 open by a duct beneath the tongue, and ensheathe this organ with a 

 sticky envelope to which insects adhere the moment it touches them, 

 and are thus borne back into the mouth. In the green-woodpecker 

 tli is mechanism attains its highest development, the supporting bones 

 of the base of the tongue having become excessively elongated so as 

 to form a pair of long, thread-like rods which, when the tongue is at 

 rest, meet at the occiput and curve upwards and forwards over the 

 roof of the cranium, resting in two deep grooves in its surface, till 

 their free ends are finally received within the cavity of the right 

 nostril Now it is the green-woodpecker, be it noted, which has the 

 greatest need of such an elaborate contrivance, since it lives largely 

 on ants, which are aroused from their nests in swarms, and must be 

 secured quickly. Thus it would seem the source of food supply has 

 followed, by selection, the maximum development of a mechanism 

 which is common to all woodpeckers. It was commonly supposed 

 that the barbed tip to the tongue was used to "spear" insects, but its 

 purpose seems rather to detach them, when necessary. 



There are two or three other points in regard to the skeleton of 



VOL. ii. 2x 



