i38s-] Kitchen on the Inferior Larynx in Birds. 2K 



The essential part of these statements is that the inferior larynx 

 of birds, or syrinx as it is often called, is the principal agent 

 emplo}ed in producing the tones of bird-song, and that the 

 superior larynx is not a phonator, but only acts as a valve, 

 preventing air and food from passing the laryngeal fissure. S. 

 Messenger Bradley is the only writer whom we have read, who 

 dissents from this deduction ; and in this dissent we also take 

 part. To be sure, our dissent is only a matter of opinion, anil 

 one that we are not prepared to substantiate by actual scientific 

 proof, but it is an opinion that is the outcome of a very consider- 

 able study of the working of the human larynx, both in health and 

 in disease, and one capable of considerable sustenance through 

 analogous reasoning. It is an interesting subject on which more 

 light is needed, and when one considers that the physiology of the 

 human larynx is not yet fully understood, it will be conceded 

 that there is a wide field still open for study of the vocal appar- 

 atus of birds. It is hoped that some one endowed with sufficient 

 leisure and enthusiasm may take up the subject and pursue it to 

 a successful issue. 



The vocal mechanisms in man and bird differ very consider- 

 ably, though there are analogous structures and functions in both 

 animals. Birds have true voice, and even speech, though the 

 speech of birds is very simple in character, and relates more to 

 the feelings than to the thoughts of these creatures ; but the so- 

 called singing of birds is not song as rendered by man, who has 

 no similar production of sounds, though an asthmatic wheeze 

 produced in the bronchial tubes, and whistling with the tongue 

 and teeth, or with the lips, approximate, in their mode of pro- 

 duction, to the vocal efforts of the Song-birds. To thoroughly 

 understand the subject, one must have a fair idea of the anatomy 

 and physiology of the vocal apparatus in man. 



It is presumed that the reader understands the ordinary laws 

 pertaining to acoustics ; that sound is the effect of air in peculiar 

 vibratory motion upon the auditory apparatus ; and that the 

 character of vocal sounds as to pitch, intensity, timbre, etc., are 

 due to the frequency and amplitude of the vibrations, and to the 

 peculiarities of the structures that originate them as to shape, den- 

 sity, etc. The vocal sounds of man are produced by an appar- 

 atus that in gross, is substantially as follows: (i) A bellows or 

 air propeller, consisting of the lungs, surrounded by the chest 



