TOUCH. , 391 



melion, and whose tails also are prehensile, 

 we must, for the same reason, presume that the 

 sense of touch exists in a more considerable 

 degree than in other saurian reptiles, which do 

 not possess this advantage. The toes of Birds 

 are also well calculated to perform the office of 

 organs of touch, from the number of their arti- 

 culations and their divergent position, and from 

 the papillae with which their skin abounds, ac- 

 companied as they are with a large supply of 

 nerves. Those birds, which, like the Parrot, 

 employ the feet as organs of prehension, probably 

 enjoy a greater developement of this sense. The 

 skin which covers the bills of aquatic birds is 

 supplied by very large nerves, and consequently 

 possesses great sensibility. This structure enables 

 them to find their food, which is concealed in the 

 mud, by the exercise of the sense of touch 

 residing in that organ. A similar structure, 

 probably serving a similar purpose, is found in 

 the Ornithorhyncus. 



Among Mammalia, we find the seat of this 

 sense frequently transferred to the lips, and ex- 

 tremity of the nostrils, and many have the nose 

 prolonged and flexible, apparently with this 

 view. This is the case with the Shrew and the 

 Mole, which are burrowing animals, and still 

 more remarkably with the Pachydermata, where 

 this greater sensibility of the parts about the 

 face seems to have been bestowed as some com- 



