238 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



should have such sweetness of song and such vibra- 

 tion of voice, and yet be without a tongue, unless it 

 were perhaps concealed in its throat. Poets, there- 

 fore, were not far from the truth when they sung, 

 that the nightingale's tongue had been cut out. But 

 whether their story be correct, I leave to be decided by 

 others. As many, however, as I have seen (and I have 

 seen a great many) had all a very distinct tongue. 

 Some assert that the story among poets of the 

 nightingale's wanting a tongue originated in the 

 circumstance of Philomela having her tongue cut out 

 by Thereus, and thence deduce a plausible reason for 

 believing that the nightingale is in reality deprived 

 of the tip of the tongue*." 



Now, recurring to the comparison of the organs of 

 the voice to a reeded wind instrument, it has been 

 maintained by Dutrochet and Cuvier, that the tube 

 which conveys the air to the reed has no influence 

 whatever on the sound produced. M. Biot, however, 

 relates an experiment by M. Grenie, which proves that 

 this opinion is not correct. It is not impossible, that 

 the lengthening or shortening the windpipe, which is 

 the tube for conveying the air to the vocal chords, may 

 have some influence in the production of the voice 

 and in occasioning its different tones. This tube, in- 

 deed, is formed so as to be lengthened or shortened, 

 enlarged or diminished in diameter ; and being sus- 

 ceptible of assuming an indefinite number of dif- 

 ferent forms, it may fulfil very well the office of the 

 body of a reed instrument ; that is, it may possess 

 the power of adjusting itself so as to harmonize with 

 the vocal chords, and thus favour the production of 

 any among the numerous tones of which the voice is 

 susceptible. It will increase the intensity of the vocal 

 sounds, by assuming a conical form ; by enlarging 

 externally, it will give them an agreeable rotundity ; 

 * Aidrovandi Ornithologia ; ii. 339. 



