8486 



Birds. 



fimbriae, after which the tongue is retracted into the beak, and the insect swallowed by 

 the ordinary process, as doubtless those are which are captured with the beak in flight. 

 I do not thoroughly understand the mode by which liquids are taken up by a humming 

 bird's tongue, though I have carefully watched the process. If syrup be presented to 



Fig. 1 represents the tongue in Trochilus polytmus, considerably magnified; the 

 terminal filaments kept asunder by means of a pin. 

 k Fig. 2. The extremity of the left filament still more magnified. 



one in a quill, the tongue is protruded for about half an inch into the liquor, the beak 

 resting in the pen, as it is held horizontal. There is a slight but rapid and constant 

 projection and retraction of the tubes, and the liquor disappears very fast, perhaps by 

 capillary attraction, perhaps by a sort of pumping, certainly not by licking."— P. H. 

 Gosse ; Sandhurst, Torquay. 



Who are the Humming Bird's Relations ? By 

 A. R. Wallace, Esq., F.L.S. 



In your last number you have thrown down a gage of battle which 

 I willingly take up. 1 beg to be allowed to say a few words in favour 

 of the humble swift, who claims a hearing through me, his unworthy 

 champion, to prove his undoubted, though somewhat distant, cousinship 

 to the great and wealthy family of the Hummers ; and to show that 

 those Indian sun-birds who have so long held that honoured place in 

 public estimation come of a different stock altogether, — very ancient 

 and highly respectable no doubt, but still quite unworthy of the high 

 position in which their too-partial friends have placed them. 



Misled by similarity of dress and by a general resemblance in 

 size and habits, and owing perhaps to the fact that inhabiting respect- 

 ively the Eastern and Western tropics few naturalists have enjoyed a 

 personal acquaintance with both families, and thus been enabled to 

 detect the real and important differences hidden beneath the jewelled 



