TASTE. 95 



bone (05 hyoides) in shape of a horse-shoe, very 

 moveable in consequence of its not being joined with 

 any other bone, but hanging; among the muscles 

 employed in speaking and swallowing. The motions 

 of the lingual fibres are facilitated by fat or oil 

 beautifully spread over them and around them. 

 They play indeed in a mesh-work of fat which is 

 poured out on their surface by countless pipes, 

 many of them too small for the most powerful mi- 

 croscope to discover. This mechanism, so carefully 

 and minutely adapted to its end, affords a clear 

 explanation of the rapid and various motions of the 

 tongue; for though we admire and wonder at the 

 contrivance, we are no longer astonished at these 

 motions, when we examine this minute and beautiful 

 mechanism of innumerable fibres washed by an oily 

 fluid, constantly renewed every moment of our lives. 

 The bird which is perhaps the most celebrated for 

 its tongue is the flamingo (Phcenicopterus ruber), so 

 much so that if Belon be right * Aristotle named the 

 bird from its tongue (yXorns)t. This was esteemed 

 by the luxurious Romans one of the greatest deli- 

 cacies that could be brought to table; "Apicius," 

 according to Pliny, " the most riotous glutton and 

 belly-god of his time, being the first who taught men 

 that the tongue of the phoenicopterus was a most 

 sweet and delicate piece of meat J." Lampridius 

 reckons among the extravagances of Heliogabalus, 

 his ordering for his table dishes filled with flamingoes' 

 tongues . The Roman epicure, Vitellius, also bringing 

 together the delicacies of all parts of the world, caused 

 to be served up at his entertainments, at once, the 

 livers of scari, the roes of muraenae, the brains of 

 pheasants and peacocks, and the tongues of flamin- 



*Oyseaux ; p. 199, fol. Paris, 1555. f Hist. Anim. viii. 12. 



I Holland's Plinie, 296. i. 

 Hist. August, Script. 8vo. Leyden, 1671. 



