Concerning Birds' Tongues 



BY FREDERIC A. LUCAS 



Curator of Comparative Anatomy, I'liited States National Museum 

 Illustrated by the author 



HE tongue of man may be an unruly mem- 



THE FLICKER 



ber, but the tongues of his furred and 

 feathered relatives are under much better 

 control and, in the absence of hands, serve many 

 useful purposes. Every one knows how the cat laps 

 milk, washes her face and combs her hair, all with her tongue ; every 

 one has seen a Duck investigating a puddle, and some have seen a 

 Flicker probing the depths of an ant-hill. It may have occurred to 

 the observer that in each case there must be some device whereby the 

 tongue is fitted for the work to be done, and it is plain that the tongue 

 of the Duck should be quite different from that of the Woodpecker, 

 since they are used for very different pur- 

 poses. But unless one has actually in- 

 vestigated, he might not suspect how very 

 unlike their tongues are, nor how com- 

 plicated is that of the common Duck, be- 

 ing, as it is, a sort of combined rake and 

 strainer. Neither, without some little 

 study, would one suspect the many kinds 

 of tongues found among birds and the cu- 

 rious modifications they present. 



All, or nearly all, of these modifica- 

 tions probably have more or less to do 

 with obtaining or manipulating food, al- 

 though, to tell the truth, it has to be as- 

 sumed that this is the case more from 

 the apparent fitness of the organ for that 

 purpose than from any actual observa- 

 tions on the subject. Not that every bird 

 has a remarkable tongue, for the great 

 majority of our small perchers have rather 

 commonplace tongues adapted for general 

 rather than special purposes, and there- 

 fore constructed on the same general plan. A tongue of this type is 

 rather thin, slightly hollowed, and frayed out a little towards the tip, 

 like the tongue of the Connecticut Warbler, which may be taken as 

 the type of tongue possessed by the great majority of Warblers and 



(5) 



TONGUES OF RINGED-NECKED DUCK 

 [a), RED-BREASTED MERGANSER (&). 



