198 THE RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. 



insects, similar in so far to that of the Woodpeckers, although presenting a 

 different modification in its horny extremity, which is more elongated and 

 less rigid. All observers who have written on the tongue of the Humming- 

 birds, have represented it as composed of two cylindrical tubes, and the 

 prevalent notion has been that the bird sucks the nectar of flowers by means 

 of these tubes. But both ideas are incorrect. There are, it is true, two 

 cylindrical tubes, but they gradually taper away toward the point, and 

 instead of being pervious form two sheaths for the two terminal parts or 

 shafts of the glosso-hyal portion of the tongue, which run nearly to the tip, 

 while there is appended to them externally a very thin-fringed or denticulate 

 plate of horny substance. The bird obviously cannot suck, but it may thrust 

 the tip of the tongue into a fluid, and by drawing it back may thus procure 

 a portion. It is, however, more properly an organ for the prehension of 

 small insects, for which it is obviously well adapted, and being exsertile to a 

 great extent enables the bird to reach at minute objects deep in the tubes 

 and nectaries of flowers. That a Humming-bird may for a time subsist on 

 sugar and water, or any other saccharine fluid, is probable enough; but it is 

 essentially an insect-hunter, and not a honey-sucker. 



The oesophagus, fig. 2, is 1 inch 4 twelfths long, 1|- twelfths in width at 

 the top, but toward the lower part of the neck enlarged to If twelfths. On 

 entering the thorax, it contracts to ^ twelfth; and the proventriculus is 1^ 

 twelfths. The stomach is extremely small, of a roundish or broadly 

 elliptical form, lj twelfths in length, and 1 twelfth in breadth. The 

 proventricular glands form a complete belt, 2 twelfths in breadth. The 

 walls of the stomach are moderately muscular; the epithelium dense, with 

 broad longitudinal rugse, four on one side, three on the other, and of a pale 

 red colour. In the stomach were fragments of small coleopterous insects. 

 The intestine is 2 inches 2 twelfths in length, from H twelfths to -£ twelfth 

 in width. It forms six curves, the duodenum returning at the distance of 

 3 twelfths. There are no cceca. The cloaca is very large and globular. 



The trachea, fig. 1, is 9 twelfths long, being thus remarkably short on 

 account of its bifurcating very high on the neck, for if it were to divide at 

 the usual place, or just anteriorly to the base of the heart, it would be A\ 

 twelfths longer. In this respect it differs from that of all the other birds 

 examined, with the exception of the Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea Jijaja, the 

 trachea of which is in so far similar. The bronchi are exactly ^ inch in 

 length. Until the bifurcation, the trachea passes along the right side, 

 afterwards directly in front. There are 50 rings to the fork; and each 

 bronchus has 34 rings. The breadth of the trachea at the upper part is 

 scarcely more than \ twelfth, and at the lower part considerably less. It is 

 much flattened, and the rings are very narrow, cartilaginous, and placed 



