200 GENERAL OBNITHOLOGY. 



in that system of euormous air-spaces for which the respiratory system of birds is so remarkably 

 distinguished, — like a heap of soap-bubbles, blown up en masse from a bowl of fluid; the extra- 

 pulmonary air-spaces being the larger superficial bubbles, the minute vesicles of lung-tissue 

 proper being little bubbles just formed. In this way air penetrates even the hollow skeleton of 

 most birds (p. 135). 



The Lungs of Birds (fig. 101, t, t), notwithstanding their heated energy of respiration, 

 are anatomically more like those of reptiles than of inannnals. They are not shut by a dia- 

 phragm in a special division of the great thoracic-abdominal ca\nty of the body, but extend from 

 the apex of the chest as far as the kidneys, in the pelvic region. They are not divided into lobes, 

 as in mammals, nor do they as in that class float freely in the chest by their mooring at their 

 roots ; nor, again, are they completely invested by a serous membrane forming a clcjsed pleural 

 cavity. They are fixed in the dorsal region of the general cavity, covered in front witli pleura, 

 with which slips of the rudimentary diaphragm {v, v, v) are connected ; but on the dorsal surface 

 are accurately moulded to the intercostal spaces, showing the impressions of the ribs and verte- 

 brae, — just as the lobulated kidneys are stamped with the sacral inequalities of surface. They 

 are, as usual, two, right and left; their "roots" are the bronchi (r, r), the pulmonary arteries 

 and veins, nerves, and connective tissue. 



The Pneumatocysts. — A bird is literally inflated with these great membranous recepta- 

 cles of air, and draws a remarkably "long breath," — all through the trunk of the body, in 

 several pretty definite compartments ; in many, or most, or all, of the bones ; in many inter- 

 muscular spaces ; in some birds also throughout the cellular tissue immediately beneath the 

 skin. They vary so much in extent and disposition as to be not easily described except either 

 in the most general terms already used, or with particularity of detail for difierent species. Ac- 

 cording to Owen, however, the usual disposition is : An inter-clavicular air-space, quite con- 

 stant: this, with its cervical prolongations, furnishes the great " air-drums " of our pinnated 

 grouse and cock-of-the-plains. Anterior thoracic, about the roots of the lungs. Lateral tho- 

 racic, prolonged to axillary, and to spaces and passages in the wings, including the hollow 

 humerus. Large hepatic or posterior thoracic, about the lower part of the lung and the liver. 

 Abdominal, right and left, of great size, from the lower part of the lung where the longest bron- 

 chial tubes open very freely ; extending to jjeZ^rc and inguinal compartments, whence femoral 

 sacs, the hollow of the femur, etc. The subcutaneous cells are enormously developed in the 

 pelican and gannet ; the extensive areolar tissue being thoroughly pneumatic, and furnished 

 with an arrangement of the cutaneous muscle {panniculus carnosus) whereby, apparently, the 

 air may be rapidly and forcibly expelled by compression. A similar muscle develops in some 

 birds in connection with the interclavicular air-space. (For pneumaticity of the skeleton, see 

 p. 135.) 



The purpose of this extensive respiratory apparatus is thus dwelt upon by the great "New- 

 ton of Anatomy" just cited: "The extension from the lungs of continuous air-receptacles 

 uhroughout the body is subservient to the function of respiration, not only by a change in the 

 blood of the pulmonary circulation efiected by the air of the receptacles on its repassage through 

 the bronchial tubes ; but also, and more especially, by the change which the blood undergoes 

 in the capillaries of the systemic circulation which are in contact with the air-receptacles. 

 The free outlet to the air by. the bronchial tubes does not, therefore, aflFord an argument against 

 the use of the air-cells as subsidiary respiratory organs, but rather supports that opinion, since 

 the inlet of atmospheric oxygenated air to be diffused over the body must be equally free. A 

 second use may be ascribed to the air-cells as aiding mechanically the action of respiration in 

 birds. During the act of inspiration the sternum is depressed [lowered from the back-bone in 

 horizontal position of a bu-d], the angle between the vertebral and sternal ribs made less acute. 



