NATURAL TRUMPET OF THE CRANE. i 37 



the future ; neither of these terms signifies for her just one day. 

 Here, again, she gives too large a signification to words. And an in- 

 fant scarcely employs a single word that is not destined later to re- 

 ceive a more restricted meaning. Like primitive peoples, infants 

 incline to conceive large and general ideas. The child presents, in 

 the transitional state, mental characters which we find in the fixed 

 state in primitive civilizations, just as the human embryo presents in 

 the transitional state physical characters which are found in the fixed 

 state in certain lower classes of animals. 



-+- 



NATURAL TKUMPET OF THE CRANE. 



By FRANK BUCKLAND. 



SPORTSMEN and naturalists, both at home and abroad, would do 

 well to collect not only the skins of birds, but also to search 

 for any peculiarity which may happen to occur in their internal 

 structure, especially the bones and the larynx. 



Some weeks since, when calling upon my friend Mr. Jamrach, the 

 animal-dealer, I observed in the back-yard, on the dust-heap, a num- 

 ber of dead birds. Among them was the body of a very large crane. 

 Mr. Jamrach allowed me to take this home, and I made several prep- 

 arations of it. We now figure the very remarkable trachea, or wind- 

 pipe, of this bird. In an ordinary bird, such as a chicken, when cut- 

 ting open the skin of the throat, it will be found that the trachea forms 

 a continuous tube, going in a direct line from the mouth to the lungs, 

 where it bifurcates. In the crane this is not the case. Instead of 

 passing between the two bones ordinarily known as the merry-thought, 

 it becomes convoluted in a very remarkable manner. If this convolu 

 tion had been placed immediately under the skin, first of all it would 

 have been cumbersome to the bird ; and, secondly, there would have 

 been a great likelihood of its becoming injured. The breastbone, 

 therefore, has been hollowed out in the middle in such a manner as to 

 keep the trachea packed up in a beautiful box of bone. Inside this 

 box of bone there are about thirteen inches of the trachea. The 

 trachea enters this bony box at its lowest margin; it then runs along 

 the bottom and ascends to the top ; then takes a very sharp turn, and 

 again descending to the bottom of the box joins the lungs in the usual 

 way. In life this trachea is not fixed in the box, but is capable of ex- 

 tension and prolongation ; in fact, is almost as elastic as India-rubber. 



The diagram will explain this. 



The curious cartilaginous-like material reminding us of mosaic 

 work of which the trachea is composed, differs much in pattern in its 

 various portions, the rings being single near the mouth, while a few 



