56 ii. 17. 



the tasting and for the sucking up of nutriment. This is plainly 

 to be seen in flies and bees and all such animals, and likewise 

 in some of the Testacea. In the Purpurae,^^ for instance, so 

 strong is this part that it enables them to bore holes through 

 the hard covering of shell-fish, of the spiral snails, for example, 

 that are used as bait to catch them. So also gad-flies and 

 cattle-flies ^^ can pierce through the skin of man, and some of 

 them even through the skins of other animals. Such, then, in 

 these animals is the nature of the tongue, which is thus as it 

 were the counterpart of the elephant's nostril. For as in the 

 elephant the nostril is used as a weapon, so in these animals 

 the tongue serves as a piercer or sting.*' 



In all other animals the tongue agrees with the description 

 already given. 



661a. 



