TASTE. 87 



tongue in the ostrich (Struthio Camelus, ARISTOTLE), 

 however, which is an omnivorous bird, is also small. 

 Baron Cuvier describes it as " short and rounded 

 like a crescent*, 5 ' and Vallisnieri, the celebrated 

 Italian naturalist, says it is "very short, similar to 

 that of fishes, smooth, slippery (lubrica), and with- 

 out any appearance of papilla?, which, according to 

 Malpighi, are the chief organs of taste ; and indeed 

 it heedlessly swallows pieces of wood, stones, ropes, 

 bits of cloth, iron, glass, and the like, not seeming to 

 feel any taste, but foolishly gulping them down }." 



We think, on the contrary, the lubrica of his own 

 description would lead to the conclusion that the 

 ostrich did possess taste, and that the shortness of 

 the tongue corresponds with the short bill. 



The toucan {Ramphastos) possesses the most 

 singular tongue of any other bird, being sometimes, 

 according to Blurnenbach, " several inches in length, 

 yet scarcely two lines broad at its root, having the 

 appearance throughout of a piece of whalebone, with 

 its margins fibrous J." " These," says BufFon, 

 " are the only birds which may be said to have a 

 feather instead of a tongue ; and a feather it cer- 

 tainly is, though the shaft is a cartilaginous substance 

 two lines broad ; for on both sides there are very 

 close barbs, entirely like those of ordinary feathers, 

 and which are longer the nearer they are inserted to 

 the extremity ." This not being supplied with 

 nerves, and, being withal horny and stiff, quite unfits it, 

 as Blumenbach thinks, from being an organ of taste ; 

 but if the tongue possess not this faculty, it is evi- 

 dently a very useful organ, as appears from the 

 account given by M. Pozzo of one of the red-bellied 

 species (Ramphastos picatus), bred up by him, and 



* Regne Animal, i. 495, ed. 1829. 



f Notomia dello Struzzo, Esperienze, p. 180, 4to. Padova, 1726. 

 J Comp. Anat. . 234. Oiseaux, Art. Le Toucan. 



