148 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



is coiled around the morsel, the tongue curves upwards bringing 

 the food into the mouth rasping, as it were, the upper jaw. 



In grazing, the tongue is lapped around a wisp of grass, which 

 is brought into the front of the mouth, and held in its grasp 

 against the upper jaw, when by a quick motion of the head, the 

 sharp chisel-teeth in the under jaw, clip o£E the herbage. In these 

 motions we see the great advantage of the outer direction of the 

 under incisors. 



In studying these movements of the tongue, we become con- 

 vinced that upper front teeth would not only seriously interfere 

 with its motion in protrusion by lacerating its upper surface, but 

 would positively arrest the morsel against the upper incisors, if 

 there were any, and thus impose a barrier against the use of the 

 tongue in prehension. 



In the deer tribe, cervidae^ the tongue is longer in proportion to 

 its weight, than in the ox. Deer are mostly browsing animals, 

 feeding on leaves and branches of shrubs and small trees ; for this 

 purpose the long flexible tongue is especially well adapted. Deer 

 have the longest tongue of any of the ruminants, if we except the 

 giraffe, whose tongue is simply enormous. With its extensive 

 tongue, and long neck, this singular animal is enabled to reach 

 branches of considerable elevation. 



Antelopes, for the most part, have moderately sized tongues, 

 yet not a few have the organ largely developed ; in fact the tongues 

 vary nearly as much as do these ill-assorted animals themselves. 

 For the genus antelope is a kind of zoological retreat for the re- 

 ception of those outcast hollow-horned ruminants which do not 

 belong, either to the ox, sheep, or goat species. 



Groats have a moderately developed tongue, fully capable, how- 

 ever, of procuring food in the same manner as the preceding tribes. 

 Sheep have this organ less developed than in any other of the 

 true ruminants. It is capable of being protruded not over three 

 inches beyond the lips. In grazing on short pasturage, the point 

 of the tongue is only used to fix the short grass to the upper gum, 

 while the under teeth are made to sever the herbage. In our wild 

 sheep of the Eocky mountains, ovis montana, the tongue is more 

 developed than in the domestic animal. Is it not more than prob- 



