TONGUES AS FOOD-GETTERS 79 



fishers, but one long-tongued and the other short, 

 though the beaks are so much alike. 



In some cases, however, the tongue may be 

 useful and even of vital importance ; we have seen 

 it is so in the Crossbill, and in the Woodpeckers 

 in the various honey-feeding groups it is most 

 instrumental in getting the food. Woodpeckers 

 have the tongue very long and wormlike, and can 

 protrude it to a distance at least equal to the length 

 of the bill ; the tip is horny and barbed along the 

 sides, so that the organ not only acts as a probe 

 but a grapple, and is used to drag out grubs, etc., 

 that cannot be reached with the bill. 



In the Sapsucker above-mentioned the armature 

 of the tip is slightly modified, so that it is more 

 like a brush than a spear-head. I found in young 

 specimens of the Indian Golden-backed Wood- 

 pecker (Brachypterus aurantius), which I reared 

 from the nest, that the end of the tongue is plain 

 until the bird is fledged, the barbs not appearing 

 till later ; one very tame one I had gave tactile 

 demonstrations of the use of the tongue as a probe, 

 for she used not only to sound the top of my head 

 with her bill in a most uncomplimentary way, but 

 tickle my ears as if they were so many worm-holes. 



In our Wryneck the protrusibility of the tongue 

 and its use in feeding on ants and their cocoons 

 has long attracted notice ; the quickness of action 

 in this case is such that the ants' cocoon appears to 

 the observer to be attracted as by a magnet ; in 

 the bigger and slower-moving Woodpecker the 



