BntDS. 421 



their neighbors.* All tlie common songsters belong to the 

 Order of Insessores, and their Yocal organs are much more 

 complex than those of most other birds; yet it is a singular 

 fact that some of the Insessores, such as ravens, crows, and 

 magpies, possess the proper apparatus,! though they never 

 sing, and do not naturally modulate their voices to any 

 great extent. Hunter asserts X that with the true songsters 

 the muscles of the larynx are stronger in the males than in 

 the females ; but with this slight exception there is no dif- 

 ference in the vocal organs of the two sexes, although the 

 males of most species sing so much better and more con- 

 tinuously than the females. 



It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing. 

 The Australian genus Menura, however, must be excepted; 

 for the Menura Alberti, which is about the size of a half- 

 grown turke}' , not only mocks other birds, but *' its own 

 whistle is exceedingly beautiful and varied." The males 

 congregrte and form ^' corroborying places," where they 

 sing, raising and spreading their tails like peacocks, and 

 drooping their wings. It is also remarkable that birds 

 which sing well are rarely decorated with brilliant colors 

 or other ornaments. Of our British birds, excepting the 

 bullfinch and goldfinch, the best songsters are plain- 

 colored. The kingfisher, bee-eater, roller, hoopoe, wood- 

 pecker, etc., utter harsh cries ; and the brilliant birds of 

 the tropics are hardly ever songsters. || Hence bright 

 colors and the power of song seem to replace each other. 

 We can perceive that if the plumage did not vary in 

 brightness, or if bright colors were dangerous to the 

 species, other means would be employed to charm the 

 females; and melody of voice offers one such means. 



In some birds the vocal organs differ greatly in the two 



* Bureau de la Malle gives a curious instance ('* Annales des Sc. 

 Nat.," 3d series, Zoolog., torn, x, p. 118) of some wild blackbirds in 

 his garden in Paris, which naturally learned a republican air from a 

 caged bird, 



f Bishop, in *' Todd's Cyclop, of Anat. and Phys.," vol. iv, p. 1496. 



J As stated by Barrington in " Philosoph. Transact.," 1773, p. ^62. 



Gould, " Hand-book to the Birds of Australia," vol. i, 1865, pp. 

 308-310. See also Mr. T. W. Wood in the " Student," April, 1870, 

 p. 125. 



I See remarks to this effect in Gould's "Introduction to the Tro- 

 chilidse/' 1861, p. 22. 



