III. 



THE WOODPECKER'S TONGUE, &c. 



THE green woodpecker has a tongue perhaps more remark- 

 able than that of any other bird. " The tongue bones are 

 so much prolonged that they pass right over the back of 

 the head, and are inserted in the skull just above the 

 right nostril ; these tongue bones, uniting in the lower jaw, 

 become consolidated into a round mass about the thick- 

 ness of a small straw; this pierces the true tongue sub- 

 stance, and ends in a horny tip, which is barbed on both 

 sides." By means of his powerful bill the woodpecker 

 hammers into the bark of the tree, and then by very rapid 

 and extensive protusions of the tongue, seizes the fugitive 

 insects. To render this horny tongue slimy, and to keep 

 the tip of it constantly moist, two large glands are placed 

 at the angles of the lower jaw, and these, through a special 

 duct, pour out a viscid and glutinous secretion. "This 

 remarkable structure," says the writer above quoted, " is 

 one that is easily displayed by a very simple dissection 

 with a penknife ; and the beautiful fittings and marvellous 

 elasticity of the parts can so well be seen in a fresh subject 

 that no one who sees can help admiring." 



Another writer says 



" Nature has appointed the woodpeckers conservators 

 of the wood of old trees, furnished them admirably for 

 their office, and so formed their habits that an old tree is 

 an Eden to them, fraught with safety, and redolent of 

 plenty and fatness. So exquisitely are they fitted for their 

 office that the several woodpeckers vary in tint with the 



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