74 



calculated for grinding, but not for lacerating 

 their food. In every respect, then, the structure 

 of these parts in reptiles is adapted to the parti- 

 cular habits of each tribe, and might almost have 

 been anticipated, from a knowledge of these 

 habits. 



We come next to birds. This class of animals 

 has neither lips nor teeth, the place of both be- 

 ing supplied by their horny bill, which, in some 

 kinds, as the goose, duck, falcon, &c. is furnished 

 with little tooth-like projections, for the purpose 

 of assisting its actions. The salivary glands are 

 much larger in the herbivorous than in the car- 

 nivarous birds ; the food on which the former 

 subsist requiring, apparently, more lubrication. 

 The tongue of birds is of various characters j 

 being in some, as the humming-bird, which takes 

 its food by suction, tube-shaped, like that of the 

 bee ; in others, as the woodpecker, which trans- 

 fixes its prey by this organ, cylindrical, like that 

 of the chameleon ; and in others, as the parrot, 

 who uses the tongue only in the ordinary way, 

 flat, like that of most mammiferous animals. Its 

 consistence is sometimes cartilaginous, like that 

 of fishes ; and sometimes fleshy, like that of 

 frogs. In the rapacious birds, it is often, like 

 that of serpents, cloven ; and in thrushes and 

 starlings it is fringed at the point ; it is very ge- 

 nerally furnished with prickles, and in the tou- 

 can, it is even beset with feathers. The jaws of 

 birds offer nothing remarkable, except that the 



