PARTS OF ANIiMALS, II. xvii. 



some cases information is actually conveyed from one 

 bird to another. I have spoken of these in the 

 Researches upon Animals.^ 



The tongue is useless for the purpose of speech in 

 most of the oviparous and blooded land-animals be- 

 cause it is fastened down and is hard ; but it is very 

 useful for the purpose of taste, e.g. in the serpents and 

 lizards, which have long, forked tongues. Serpents' 

 tongues are very long, but can be rolled into a small 

 compass and then extended to a great distance ; they 

 are also forked, and the tips of them are fine and hairy, 

 owing to their having such inordinate appetites ; by 

 this means the serpents get a double pleasure out 

 of what they taste, o\ving to their possessing as it 

 were a double organ for this sense. 



Even some of the bloodless animals have an organ 

 for perceiving tastes ; and of course all the blooded 

 animals have one, including those which most people 

 would say had not, e.g., certain of the fishes, which 

 have a paltry sort of tongue, very like what the river- 

 crocodiles have. Most of these creatures look as if 

 they had no tongue, and there is good reason for this. 



(1) All animals of this sort have spinous mouths ; 



(2) the time which water-animals have for perceiv- 

 ing tastes is short ; hence, since the use of this 

 sense is short, so is the articulation of its organ. 

 The reason why their food passes very quickly into 

 the stomach is because they cannot spend much time 

 sucking out its juices, otherwise the water would get 

 in as well. So unless you pull the mouth well open, 

 you will not be able to see that the tongue is a sepa- 

 rate projection. The inside of the mouth is spinous, 

 because it is formed by the juxtaposition of the gills 

 which are of a spinous nature. 



203' 



