THE 



ANATOMY OF BIKD-SONG. 



THE vocal organs of the birds have received 

 much attention from the comparative anato 

 mists, and have been the subject of many 

 theories, accompanied with more or less figur- 

 ing and minute description. Ms cgillivray hat 

 been followed pretty closely by all the bird 

 anatomists since he wrote his British Birds, 

 and especially has his exposition of the office 

 and modus operandi of the so-called syrina 

 been accepted as if without question Pet 

 haps the best work yet done in this field so fa 

 as it goes (and outside of Macgillivray's) i* 

 Miiller's Researches, Berlin Ac. 1845, though 

 Owen and Parker and Huxley, not to mention 

 a great many others, have touched the subject 

 with deft hands in passing by. As a rule, 

 however, and naturally enough, the attention 

 of all these competent scientists has been 

 directed more particularly to the anatomical 

 side of the subject, to the neglect, in some 

 degree at least, of the physiological side. The 

 syrinx, a peculiar valve-box attached to and 

 forming a specialized part of the oscine larynx, 

 has been described over and over again, and 

 song-making assigned as its function. Curi- 

 ously enough, Macgillivray's famous drawings 

 the figures upon which everybody has been 

 content to rely for so many years were 

 made from a rook, a bird without a singing 

 voice, though possessed of what is called the 

 typical oscine syrinx. 



Some years ago, while dissecting, a meadow- 

 lark I became sceptical upon the subject of the 



