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. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences . A from that of Flycatchers, Goatsuckers, Swallows, and such birds as seize on living insects while on wing. The lower mandible is deeply con- cave within, wider than the tongue, and covered with mucous membrane until one inch five-twelfths from the point, beyond which it is horny, with a median groove, near the commencement of which is a small aperture for the ducts of the salivary glands. The tongue is capable of bein" re- tracted ten-twelfths of an inch from the tips of the mandibles, and is then seen to slide into a
. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences . A from that of Flycatchers, Goatsuckers, Swallows, and such birds as seize on living insects while on wing. The lower mandible is deeply con- cave within, wider than the tongue, and covered with mucous membrane until one inch five-twelfths from the point, beyond which it is horny, with a median groove, near the commencement of which is a small aperture for the ducts of the salivary glands. The tongue is capable of bein" re- tracted ten-twelfths of an inch from the tips of the mandibles, and is then seen to slide into a sheath, formed by an induplieation or intussusception of the membrane covering it, and having two franula of elastic tissue in- serted into the angle of the jaw. Here it may be proper to state, that in birds generally the bony elements of the tongue are seven, as may be re- presented by the accompanying diagram, in which the first or upper piece is named the glosso-hyal, the next the basi-hyal, the third, in the same line, the uro-hyal; the two coming off from the base of the second piece or basi-hyal, are the apo-hyal, to each of which is appended another, the cerato-hyal. The tongue itself is in no de- gree extensile or contractile, but has for its solid basis a very slender basi-hyal bone, one inch two and one-half- twelfths in length, terminated by a glosso-hyal bone half an inch in length, but, as already said, has no basal or uro-hyal bone, which, on account of the unusual extent of its motion, would form an impediment. From the base of this basi-hyal bone there proceed, backwards and slightly diverging, two slender apo-hyal bones one inch one-twelfth in length, each of which is continuous, with an extremely elongated cerato- hyal bone, four inches and one-twelfth in length, three-fourths of one- twelfth in breadth at the commencement, gradually tapering to a blunt point, convex on its lower surface, concave or channelled on the upper, passing under and internally of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, bookpublisheredinburgh, bookyear1835