184 
PIKE GROSBEAK. 
then of an oblong shape, when viewed from above, deeply concave, with 
two flattened prominences at the base, the point rounded and thin, the back 
or lower surface convex. This remarkable structure of the tongue appears 
to be intended for the purpose of enabling the bird, when it has insinuated 
its bill between the scales of a strobilus, to lay hold of the seed by pressing 
it against the roof of the mandible. In the Crossbills, the tongue is nearly 
of the same form, but more slender, and these birds feed in the same manner 
in so far as regards the prehension of the food. In the present species, the 
tongue is much strengthened by the peculiar form of the basi-hyoid bone, to 
which there is appended as it were above a thin longitudinal crest, giving it 
great firmness in the perpendicular movements of the organ. The oesophagus, 
abed, Fig. 1, is two inches 11 twelfths long, dilated on the middle of the 
neck so as to form a kind of elongated dimidiate crop, 4 twelfths of an inch 
in diameter, projecting to the right side, and with the trachea passing along 
that side of the vertebras. The proventriculus, c, is 8 twelfths long, some- 
what bulbiform, with numerous oblong glandules, its greatest diameter 4£ 
twelfths. A very curious peculiarity of the stomach, e , is, that in place of 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
