94 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



have seen the popinjay (Picus viridis, RAY) take its 

 food in a similar manner ; and most probably every 

 species of that genus does the same*." 



Mr. Knapp thus describes the habits of the wry- 

 neck : " Shy and unusually timid," says he, " as if all 

 its life were spent in the deepest retirement away from 

 man, it remains through the day on some ditch-bank, 

 or basks with seeming 1 enjoyment, in any sunny hour, 

 on the ant-hills nearest to its retreat ; and these it 

 depopulates for food by means of its long glutinous 

 tongue, which, with the insects, collects much of the 

 soil of the heaps, as we find a much larger portion of 

 grit in its stomach than is usually met with in that 

 of other birds f.'' 



The rapidity and variety in the movements of the 

 tongue in these birds will not, however, appear to be 

 so very extraordinary to the person who may have 

 attended minutely to those of his own tongue ; for 

 independently of the endless positions it assumes in 

 speaking, it is no less varied in the processes of eating 

 and drinking. Now there can be no motion without 

 a mover ; and in animals every mover is a muscle or 

 fleshy riband, which is fixed into the thing to be 

 moved for the purpose of pulling it in the direction 

 required. In the numerous motions of the human 

 tongue there are only three pairs of these fleshy 

 ribands employed ; and the threads or fibres of these 

 are so interwoven near its tip, that the nicest art 

 cannot trace them to their terminations, though it is 

 probable every fibre has an action of its own. It is 

 very remarkable, however, that none of the fibres 

 cross the furrow which may be observed to divide the 

 tongue into two equal portions. The muscles four 

 on each side which thus compose the fleshy portion 

 of the tongue, run backwards and are attached to a 



* Ornith. Diet. 

 t Journ. of a Naturalist, p. 191, 3d ed. 



