532 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 



Parallel to the lower edge of the jaw, and extending from 4 twelfths 

 anteriorly to its articulation to the junction of its crura, is, on each side, 

 an elongated salivary gland,//, attached to the jaw by cellular tissue. 

 It is of a yellowish colour, internally parenchymatous, and sends off a 

 duct, which enters the mouth by the aperture already mentioned, at 

 the commencement of the groove in the horny part of the lower man- 

 dible. The fluid which it secretes is a glairy mucus, of a whitish 

 colour, which being pom-ed forth around the tip of the tongue covers it 

 with a glutinous substance well adapted for causing the adhesion of 

 any small body to it. 



The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, then, having discovered an insect or 

 larva in a chink of the bark, is enabled by suddenly protruding its 

 tongue, covered with thick mucus, and having a strong slender sharp 

 point furnished with small reversed prickles, to seize it and draw it into 

 the mouth. These prickles are of special use in drawing from its retreat 

 in the wood those large larvas, often two or three inches in length ; 

 but it does not appear probable that the bristly point is ever used to 

 transfix an object, otherwise how should the object be again set free, 

 without tearing off the prickles, which are extremely delicate and not 

 capable of being bent in every direction ? 



The trachea, ^^, is 5 inches 4 twelfths in length, considerably flatten- 

 ed, nearly of the uniform breadth of 3 twelfths throughout. The 

 aperture of the glottis is 4 twelfths long, with a posterior flap of 

 several series of papillae. The rings of the trachea are very strong, 

 firmly ossified, 92 in number. At the upper part 3 are incomplete ; 

 the last entire ring is very broad and bipartite, and there are 2 addi- 

 tional dimidiate rings. The bronchi are short, of 12 half rings. The 

 lateral or contractor muscles, 1 1, commence in front, at the base of the 

 thyroid bone, diverge, presently become lateral, and thus proceed until 

 4i twelfths from the extremity, when they terminate partly in the 

 sterno-tracheal, but also send down a very thin slip, which is inserted 

 on the first dimidiate ring. 



The explanation of the mechanism by which the tongue is protrud- 

 ed as above given differs materially from any of those to be found in 

 English works at least, in some of which there is a very unnecessary 

 prolixity as well as ambiguity. It does not appeal* that hitherto the 

 real sheath in which the horns of the hyoid bone, with its muscle, 



