﻿EXTERNAL ANATOMY. TONGUE. 53 



from every flower as they passed." What will appear 

 still more extraordinary to the scientific naturalist, is the 

 fact, that some birds of this meliphagous group, are 

 actually woodpeckers, and yet retain the typical structure 

 of the tongue of their own natural family. The same ob- 

 server, speaking of the blue-faced honey sucker, describes 

 it as being " fond of picking transverse holes in the bark, 

 between which and the wood it inserts its long tongue in 

 search of small insects, which it draws out with great dex- 

 terity." * Now, as Lewin describes this bird as a honey- 

 sucker, we must conclude, until facts prove otherwise, 

 that it has the filamentous tongue of the honey suckers, 

 but that it is used for the purpose, not of spearing in- 

 sects, but of catching them by means of the glutinous 

 matter on the filaments, — a mode of capturing its prey by 

 no means improbable, provided the insects are of a small 

 size. It must not be supposed, however, that the food of 

 the Meliphagidce — several of which are as large as a 

 thrush, and three or four much larger — is restricted, any 

 more than that of the humming birds, simply to the 

 nectar of flowers. They, indeed, feed upon the honey ; 

 but, as Lewin declares, combined with the numerous small 

 insects lodged in most of the flowers, which they extract 

 in a dexterous manner with their tongues, peculiarly 

 formed for that purpose. It is clear, moreover, when 

 we come to reflect upon the matter, that birds which 

 are attached to the secretions of particular trees — as are 

 many of the Meliphagidce — can only enjoy their fa- 

 vourite food for a comparatively short season ; that is, 

 while the tree or plant is in blossom : they must, there- 

 fore, either feed at other times upon small insects or upon 

 fruit. The two first habits we have shown them to possess ; 

 and the last — that of devouring fruits also — is exempli- 

 fied in the yellow-eared honeysucker of Lewin ; who re- 

 marks,, that "in the winter season these birds have been 

 seen feeding on the sweet berry of the white cedar in great 

 numbers." f There are several other modifications of the 



* Birds of New Holland, pi. 5. 



E 3 



t Ibid. 



