EXTERNAL ANATOMY. TONGUE. 
53 
irom 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- 
wrver, speaking of the blue-faced honeysucker, describes 
it as being “ fond of picking transverse holes in the hark, 
between which and the wood it inserts its long tongue in 
search of small insects, wliich 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 honeysuckers, 
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 l)e supposed, however, that the food of 
the Meliphugidee — several of which are as large as a 
tlirush, 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 Meliphagidw — 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 bave been 
seen feeding on the sweet berry of the white cedar in great 
numbers.” t There are several oUier modifications of the 
* Birds of New HoUand, pt 5. 
E 3 
+ Ibid. 
