118 THE ANATOMY OF BIRD-SONG. 



of a loggerhead shrike, each attached to the 

 '•trachea and syrinx of the bird, and upon com- 

 parison the shrike's tongue is found much 

 the thicker and clumsier, though without any 

 tendency to fleshiness. The tongues of the 

 wood-thrush and the mocking-bird are almost 

 exactly alike, whilst those of the orchard-ori- 

 ole and the bluebird are very closely similar. 



The whole arrangement of the lower man- 

 dible (with the tongue and the muscles and 

 membranes clustered about it), in the case of 

 the real songsters, appears to be modified 

 with reference to music-making. In execut- 

 ing a rapid score, the mocking-bird's tongue 

 moves like a vibrating piece of steel, and the 

 same is true of all the t witter ers and brilliant 

 voice-shakers. Pure flute- warbling, however, 

 is performed with the syrinx, though not gen- 

 erated in it, the muscular movements at the 

 bottom of the tracheal column letting the air 

 out of the lungs in palpitations (like those 

 from the human mouth in flute or fife play- 

 ing), and imparting to it various degrees of 

 volume and velocity. 



The tongue-notes of most birds are easily dis- 

 tinguishable by the ''t" sound with which 

 they begin— the syllables "tee" and "tit" 

 often recurring. The meadow-lark utters a 

 cry which sounds like ''tith-h-h-t.^^ It is 

 made by breaking a prolonged note up be- 

 tween the tongue and the roof of the mouth. 

 The red-winged blackbird renders a curious 

 phrase composed of a " shake" and a tongue- 

 note combined. A friend of mine character- 

 izes the performance as something " between 

 a snort and a giggle." The belted kingfisher 

 has a way of chattering through a chink be- 

 tween his tongue and the roof of his mouth ; 

 his voice is a very keen and clear one, de- 

 spite the primitive condition of his voice- 

 organs, and to my ear it is not without a cer- 



