340 ON THE TRACHEA OF 



sent I believe, by Dr. G-eorge Bennett of Sydney the substance o 

 which Mr. Tegetmeier has already published (from the original MS. in 

 my possession) in his work on Cranes : 



P. Z. S, 1882, " Having recently purchased a pair of those elegant birds, the 

 Manucodia gouldi, which had been shot at Cape York by Mr. J. A. 

 Thorpe (now taxidermist to the Sydney Museum), he directed my 

 attention to the peculiar formation of the trachea in them, some of 

 which he has preserved in a dry state and presented to me ; of these I 

 have sent you three, one from a female and two from males. That of 

 the female is much smaller in size than those of the males ; and even in 

 the males the convolutions assume different forms. This formation of 

 the vocal organs enables the male bird to utter a very loud and deep 

 guttural sound, indeed more powerful and sonorous than any one would 

 suppose so small a bird could be capable of producing. Mr. Thorpe 

 states to me that it was a long time before he could believe that so 

 powerful a sound emanated from this bird. No information could be 

 obtained respecting the note of the female, as only that of the male was 

 heard. These birds were found about the same locality as the two fine 

 species of Rifle-birds obtained also at Cape York Ptilorhis alberti and 

 P. victorice. 



"Mr. Thorpe gave me some information respecting the habits of 

 these birds as follows : ' During a residence of seventeen months at 

 Cape York in 1867 and 1868 I shot several of the Manucodia gouldi, 

 and took particular notice of their habits. They frequent the dense 

 palm-forests, and are usually seen high up in the trees ; they utter a 

 very deep and loud, guttural note, rather prolonged, and unlike that of 

 any other bird with which I am familiar. Their movements are par- 

 ticularly active and graceful ; on approaching them they evince more 

 curiosity than timidity, looking down at the slightest noise, and apparently 

 more anxious to obtain a full view of the intruder than for their own 

 safety. They are almost invariably in pairs ; and both birds can 

 generally be secured.' " 



I may remark that, in all the specimens of the convoluted trachea in 

 Manucodia and Phonygama I have seen, the descending limb of the loop 

 in the natural position of the bird is to the left, the ascending to the 

 right. The same peculiarity is observable in all the figures yet published, 

 excepting the original one of Lesson, and in one of those of Pavesi (I. c. 

 ix. p. 64, fig. 4). The reversal, in the first figure, is obviously due to 

 the trachea being represented from the dorsal, instead of the ventral 

 aspect, it being represented as quite separated from the body : Pavesi's 

 figure, representing the parts in situ, does not admit of this explanation, 

 if correctly drawn. 



As regards the two forms Phonygama and Manucodia, which Mr. 

 Sharpe adopts as genera in the ' Catalogue of Birds/ vol. iii. pp. 180, 182, 



