54 11- 17- 



the broadest tongues ;^ and why the viviparous and sanguineous 

 quadrupeds, where the tongue is hard and thick and not free in 

 its motions, have a very limited vocal articulation. Some birds 

 have a considerable variety of notes. These are the smaller 

 kinds.* But it is the birds with talons that have the broader 

 tongues and consequently the greater aptitude for speech. All 

 birds use their tongues to communicate with each other. But 

 some do this in a greater degree than the rest ; so that in some 

 cases it even seems as though actual instruction were imparted 

 from one to another by its agency.^ These however are matters 

 which have already been discussed in the Researches concerning 

 Animals.^ 



As to those oviparous and sanguineous animals that live not 

 in the air but on the earth, their tongue in most cases is tied 

 down and hard, and is therefore useless for vocal purposes ; in 

 the serpents however and in the lizards it is long and forked, so 

 as to be suited for the perception of savoursJ So long indeed 

 is this part in serpents, that though small while in the mouth it 

 can be protruded to a great distance. In these same animals it 

 is forked and has a fine and hair-like extremity, because of their 

 extreme liking for dainty food. For by this arrangement they 

 derive a two-fold pleasure from savours, their gustatory sensation 

 being as it were doubled. 



Even some bloodless animals have an organ that serves for 

 the perception of savours ; and in sanguineous animals . such an 

 organ is invariably present. For even in such of these as would 

 seem to an ordinary observer to have nothing of the kind, some 

 of the fishes for example, there is a kind of shabby representative 

 of a tongue,® much like what exists in river crocodiles. In most 

 of these cases the apparent absence of the part can be rationally 

 explained on some or other ground. For in the first place the 

 interior of the mouth in animals of this character is invariably 

 spinous. Secondly in water animals there is but short space of 

 time for the perception of savours, and as the use of this sense 

 is thus of short duration, shortened also is the separate part 

 which subserves it. The reason for their food being so rapidly 

 transmitted to the stomach is that they cannot possibly spend 

 any time in sucking out the juices ; for were they to attempt 

 to do so, the water would make its way in during the process. 

 Unless therefore one pulls their mouth very widely open indeed, 

 660 b. 



