Page:Bird-lore Vol 01.djvu/235

 Concerning Birds' Tongues certainly useful for catching minute insects. The tongues of some of the Australian and Hawaiian Honey-suckers are even more com- plicated, ending in four little spiral brushes instead of two. THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRUSHY TONGUE a, Connecticut Warbler: d, Australian Honey-sucker; c, American Honey-creeper; (/, Australian Friar Bird; e, Tip of Tongue of Honey-creeper Still another kind of tubular tongue is found in the Ruby- throated Hummingbird, or, for that matter in all Hummingbirds so far examined, each half of the very long and very deeply cleft tongue being edged on the outer side with the thinnest imaginable membrane, which curls inward to form a delicate tube.. Now, since the Honey-creepers, the Honey-suckers and the Hummingbirds all have tubular tongues, it is natural to suppose that they use them for sucking the nectar of flowers, and yet, so far as actual knowledge goes, the food of these birds consists principally of minute insects and spiders, which goes to show that in mat- ters pertaining to natural history a little observation is much better than a great deal of theory. Theory may, perhaps, be right in ascrib- ing the little pitchfork the Chickadee car- ries by way of a tongue to the fact that THE chickadee's such a thing would be useful for prying FORK insects and their eggs out of chinks in the bark of trees, but it is difficult even for theory to explain why some birds have just such tongues as they do : why, for example, the big-billed Toucan should have a tongue very much like a long, loose feather, or that of the Pen- guin should be made up of long spines. Perhaps when the habits of these birds are better known we may see the r ^,, r 1 ■ -1 ,. THE PENGUIN'S reasons tor the shapes ot their tongues, and the spmy rake 'Vl