TONGUE OF THE ANT-EATER. 101 



scarcely thicker than a crow-quill. It is furnished with a 

 long and powerful muscle, which arises from the sternum, 

 and is continued into its substance, affording the means of a 

 quick retraction, as well as lateral motion; while its elonga- 

 tion and other movements are effected by circular fibres, 

 which are exterior to the former. When laid on the g-round 

 in the usual track of ants, it is soon covered with these in- 

 sects, and being suddenly retracted, transfers them into the 

 mouth; and as, from their minuteness, they require no mas- 

 tication, they are swallowed undivided, and without there 

 being any necessity for teeth. 



The lips of quadrupeds are often elongated for the more 

 ready prehension of food, as we see exemplified in the Rhi- 

 noceros^ whose upper lip is so extensible as to be capable of 

 performing the office of a small proboscis. The Sorcx mos- 

 chatus, or musk shrew, whose favourite food is leeches, has 

 likewise a very. moveable snout, by which it gropes for, and 

 seizes its prey from the bottom of the nmd. More fre- 

 quently, however, this office of prehension is performed by 

 the tongue, which for that purpose is very flexible and much 

 elongated, as we see in the Camelcojjard, where it acts like 

 a hand in grasping and bringing down the branches of a 

 tree.* 



In the animals belonging to the genus Fells, each of the 

 papillae of the tongue is armed with a horny sheath termi- 

 nating in a sharp point, which is directed backwards, so as 

 to detain the food and prevent its escape. These prickles 

 are of great size and strength in the larger beasts of prey, 

 as the Lion and the Tiger; they are met with also in the 

 Opossum, and in many species of bats, more especially those 

 belonging to the genus Pteropus: all these horny produc- 

 tions have been regarded as analogous to the lingual teeth 

 of fishes, already noticed. 



The mouth of the Ornithorhyncus has a form of con- 

 struction intermediate between that of quadrupeds and 



• Home, Lectures, &c. vi. Plate 33. 



