Chap. XIII.] VOCAL MUSIC. 55 



altogether stopped. The female has " a somewhat similar, 

 though smaller, naked space of skin on the neck ; hut this 

 is not capable of inflation." " The male of another kind of 

 grouse {Tetrao urophasianus), while courting the female, 

 has his " bare yellow oesophagus inflated to a prodigious 

 size, fully half as large as the body ; " and he then utters 

 various grating, deep hollow tones. With liis neck-feath- 

 ers erect, his wings lowered and buzzing on the ground, 

 and his long pointed tail spread out like a fan, he displays 

 a variety of grotesque attitudes. The oesophagus of the 

 female is not in any way remarkable." 



It seems now well made out that the great throat- 

 pouch of the European male bustard {Otis tarda), and of 

 at least four other species, does not serve, as was formerly 

 supposed, to hold water, but is connected with the utter- 

 ance, during the breeding-season, of a peculiar sound re- 

 sembling "ock." The bird while uttering this sound 

 throws himself into the most extraordinary attitudes. It 

 is a singular fact that, with the males of the same species, 

 the sac is not developed in all the individuals." A 

 crow-like bird inhabiting South America {Gephalopterus 

 ornatus, Fig. 40) is called the umbrella-bird, from its im- 

 mense top-knot, formed of bare white quills surmounted 



*' ' The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada,' by Major W. Ross 

 King, 1866, pp. 144-146. Mr. T. W. Wood gives in the 'Student' 

 (April, IS'/O, p. 116) an excellent account of the attitude and habits of 

 this bird during its courtship. He states that the ear-tufts or neck- 

 plumes are erected, so that they meet over the crown of the head. 



^'^ Richardson, 'Fauna Bor. Americana: Birds,' 1831, p. 359. Audu- 

 bon, ibid. vol. iv. p. 507. 



^^ The following papers have been lately written on this subject : 

 Prof. A. Newton, in the 'Ibis,' 1862, p. 107 ; Dr. CuUen, ibid. 1865, p. 

 145; Mr. Flower, in ' Proc. Zool. Soc' 1865, p. 747; and Dr. Murie, in 

 'Proc. Zool. Soc' 1868, p. 471. In this latter paper an excellent figure 

 is given of the male AustraUan Bustard in full display with the sac dis- 

 tended. 



