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Mr. C. Ingram on 
XXXIT.—On Tongue-marks in Young Birds. 
By Co.itinewoop Ineram, M.B.O.U. 
Durine several years of field-work in Europe and Japan I 
have paid particular attention to the nestlings of birds, 
notung, to the best of my ability, their peculiarities and 
family characteristics. It has always appeared to me that 
this branch of ornithology has been somewhat neglected 
by naturalists, although from time to time Mr. Pycraft 
has made some extremely interesting references to the 
subject. 
My study of the immature bird has shown me that the 
young of many Passerine species are temporarily endowed 
with very remarkable biack marks or spots on the upper 
surface of their tongues. 
In 1898, when describing the peculiar bead-like ornamen- 
tations at the angle of the bill of the young Gouldian Finch 
(Poephila mirabilis), Dr. Butler (Avicult. Mag. vol. v. p. 27) 
remarked that the palate of this species is ‘‘ conspicuously 
marked (like a domino) with five more or less round black 
spots in pentagonal form,” and that ‘the tongue is crossed 
just in front of its centre by a broad belt or by two large 
pear-shaped black spots.” This paper was subsequently 
referred to by both Dr. Sharpe and Mr. Pycraft. 
When these spots occur amoug Palearctic birds they are 
usually only two in number, situated posteriorly one on each 
side of the tongue and close to its edge. These marks are 
of varying proportions, while the most usual patterns are, 
roughly speaking, lanceolate in shape, the two points being 
directed forward. Should a third be present it is to be 
found almost invariably on the tip of the tongue. Very 
rarely the inner extremities of both mandibles are ornamented 
in a similar way. Mr. Pycraft informs me that in Panurus 
biarmicus the markings are differently arranged and are 
white instead of black, an interesting discovery for which we 
are indebted in the first place to Miss E. L. Turner. 
The use of these spots is not very evident, and, pending 
