Page 789. 
116 THE TONGUE OF THE PSITTACINE GENUS NESTOR. 
any object, the papille stand upright or are even directed somewhat 
forward. : 
In Nestor there are no papille of this description, but the tongue 
is here, as Dr. Buller says, “ soft, rounded on the edges, with a broad 
central groove,” and it is as smooth as in other Parrots. Therefore 
the Ka-Ka Parrot cannot in this point be said to approach the Tri- 
choglossi (badly so called). 
The peculiarity of the tongue of Nestor consists in the fact that the 
anterior edge of the unguis, always free (though for a very short dis- 
tance) and jagged, as mentioned above, in the other birds of the class, 
is here prolonged forwards, beyond the tip of the tongue, for about 
15 inch as a delicate fringe of hairs, with a crescentic contour. This 
fringe seems to result from the breaking up into fibres of the forward- 
growing plate, which is always marked by longitudinal striations, 
clearest anteriorly, the result of unequal density and translucency of 
the tissue composing it, though on making a cross section I was not 
able to find any of the longitudinal papillary ridges which are present - 
in the human nail and which the striation led me to expect. The 
unguis is also longer than broad, and very narrow considering the 
size of the bird, as is also the whole tongue, though the length is 
greater than in others of the class. In the living bird the mouth is 
moist, as in the Lories, and not, as in the Cockatoos and others, dry 
and scaly. 
From these considerations, and a comparison of the accompanying 
drawings of the tongues of Stringops, Nestor, and Trichoglossus, it is 
evident that the structure of this organ would lead to the placing of 
Nestor among the typical Parrots, though an aberrant one, and not 
with the Trichoglossine ; and other points in its anatomy favour this 
conclusion. 
