146 FOREST CREATUEES. 



There is a curious peculiarity of the bird which must 

 not be unnoticed. When shot, in the last throes of 

 death, he swallows his tongue, or at least draws it so 

 far back that it is discovered with difficulty. This is 

 the reason that old authorities affirmed he had no 

 tongue. In the palate there is a pointed recess, in 

 which the tongue lies. It has not yet been found out 

 whether the above-mentioned circumstance occurs only 

 in the pairing season, or w^hether the tongue is swal- 

 lowed also before expiring at other times as well. I 

 am inclined to believe that the peculiarity is incident 

 to this particular season, when the tongue, being already 

 drawn far back in order to produce the smacking sound 

 of the love-call, by a convulsive twitching caused by 

 fright and the agony of death, is thrust down the gullet, 

 and thus escapes observation. If any one will try to 

 produce the sound with his tongue, he will find that it 

 is necessary to double and turn it far backwards ; and 

 if, from any hidden cause, a spasmodic movement should 

 carry it further in the same direction, he will under- 

 stand how such spasm may cause the phenomenon in 

 question. 



In G-ermany the tongue of this bird is considered by 

 many an excellent preservative against the pains of 

 dentition. Sewn up in a little bag it is hung round 

 the infant's neck, like the well-known " Anodyne neck- 

 lace " mth us when a child is cutting its teeth. 



