'hap. XIX. Man — Musical Powers. 567 



air-breathing Vertebrata necessarily possess an apparatus for 

 inhaling and expelling air, with a pipe capable of being closed 

 at one end. Hence when the primeval members of this class 

 were strongly excited and their muscles violently contracted, 

 purposeless sounds would almost certainly have been produced ; 

 and these, if they proved in any way serviceable, might readily 

 have been modified or intensified by the preservation of properly 

 adapted variations. The lowest Vertebrates which breathe air 

 are Amphibians; and of these, frogs and toads possess vocal 

 organs, which are incessantly used during the breeding-season, 

 and which are often more highly developed in the male than in 

 the female. The male alone of the tortoise utters a noise, and 

 this only during the season of love Male alligators roar or 

 bellow during the same season. Evjryone kiows how much 

 birds use their vocal organs as a mears of courtship; and some 

 species likewise perform what may be called instrumental music. 

 Iu the class of Mammals, with which we are here more par- 

 ticularly concerned, the males of almc st all the species use their 

 voices during the breeding-season mu(h more than at any other 

 time; and some are absolutely mute excepting at this season. 

 With other species both sexes, or only the females, use their 

 voices as a love-call. Considering there facts, and that the vocal 

 organs of some quadrupeds are much more largely developed in 

 the male than in the female, either permanently or temporarily 

 during the breeding-season ; and consi iering th at in most of the 

 lower classes the sounds produced by the male?, serve not only 

 to call but to excite or allure the female, it is 1 surprising fact 

 that we have not as yet any good evidence that these organs are 

 used by male mammals to charm theiemalef. The American 

 Mycetes caraya perhaps forms an exception, as does the Hylobates 

 agilis, an ape allied to man. This gibbon has an extremely loud 

 but musical voice. Mr. Waterhouse states. ° " It appeared to 

 " me that in ascending and descending the scale, the intervals 

 " were always exactly half-tones ; and I am sure that the highest 

 ■' note was the exact octave to the lowest. The quality of the 

 " notes is very musical ; and I do not doubt that a good violinist 

 " would be able to give a correct idea of the gibbon's compo- 

 " sition, excepting as legards its loudness." Mr. Waterhouso 

 then gives the notes. Professor Owen, who is a musician, con- 

 firms the foregoing statement, and remarks, though erroneously, 

 that this gibbon "alone of brute mammals may be said to 

 * sing." It appears to be much excited after its performance. 



J0 Given in W. C. L. Martin's Owen, ' Anatomy of Vertebrates, 

 4 General Introduct. to Nat. Hist, of vol. iii. p. 600. 

 Mamm. Animals,' 1841, p. 432; 



