. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. THE TONGUES OF BIRDS. 1007 and renew the horiiy covering of their beaks, is not known to me, but if this is not the case, the growth of the tongue must be comparatively rapid to prevent it from being worn to the quick. The tongues of the North American honeycreepers of the genus Certhiola are an elaboration of the warbler type, being finer and more complicated in detail, long and slender, much hollowed out toward the tip, deeply cleft, and
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. THE TONGUES OF BIRDS. 1007 and renew the horiiy covering of their beaks, is not known to me, but if this is not the case, the growth of the tongue must be comparatively rapid to prevent it from being worn to the quick. The tongues of the North American honeycreepers of the genus Certhiola are an elaboration of the warbler type, being finer and more complicated in detail, long and slender, much hollowed out toward the tip, deeply cleft, and decorated with long incurved featherings. An Australian honeysucker, Acanthorhynehus tenuirostris, carries the fining down of parts to an extreme, having a delicacy of structure which can be appreciated only with a glass. The tongue of still another genus of ISTorth American honeycreepers, Cocrcba (fig. 3 c), differs from those just described in the matter of detail by splitting the tongue. Fig. 3. more deeply and increasing the length of the feathering which rolls inward from either edge so that the tongue ends in two spiral brushes of extreme delicacy. The Hawaiian and Australian honeysuckers show a still farther advance on this, for in them each of the main branches of the tongue is cleft in twain, and these may again bifurcate so that the tongue ends in four or eight small spiral brushes. By a very little modification a true suctorial tongue, such as that of the sun- birds, Cinnyris, or of the genus Hemignathus (fig. 3 b), may be derived from that of the "srarbler type. If, instead of splitting and feathering the tip, the edges of the tongue are rolled upward and inward until they meet, a tube will be formed, and this tubular tongue, as well as the others, is subject to various modifications and may become quite complicated. In the sunbirds the edges simply touch each other and. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been dig
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