VOCAL ORGANS. f 245 



be filled with air and exploded at pleasure ; and the 

 situation of it is at the divarication of the windpipe; 

 it is capable of great distension, and is probably the 

 cause of this singular phenomenon, observed, we 

 believe, in no other bird, at least in the same degree. 

 We have had no opportunity ourselves of witnessing 

 this, but are informed by Dr. Lamb, that, on dissect- 

 ing a female, he observed that after the windpipe 

 (trachea) had passed into the chest (thorax) to the 

 lower part of the breast-bone (sternum) , it was re- 

 flected to the superior portion of the latter, and then, 

 on a second reflection, divided and passed into the 

 lungs." He adds, " I have been assured, that by 

 filling the windpipe with air after death and exploding 

 it again suddenly, a similar noise will be produced*." 



Singularly formed Windpipe of the Butor. 



The cry of the bittern has been sometimes con- 

 founded with that of the snipe, though there is little if 

 any resemblance between the twof. It is, on the con- 

 trary, so like the bleating of a goat, that Klein arid 

 Rzaczynski have named it the celestial goat (Capella 



* General Hist, of Birds, ix. 98. See also Ward, Nat. Hist, of 

 Birds, iii. 150. 



f J. Rennie, Mag. Nat. Hist. i. 495. 



y 3 



