1882.] MR. FORBES ON THE TRACHEA OF SELEUCIDES. 333 



2. Note on a Peculiarity in the Trachea of the Twelve- wired 

 Bird-of- Paradise [Seleucides nigra). By W. A. Forbes, 

 B.A., Prosector to the Society. 



[Received March 7, 1882.] 



The death (from congestion of the lungs, with resulting haemor- 

 rhage, and thickening of the walls of the intrathoracic air-cells) on 

 Feb. 22nd last of the male Seleucides nigra, purchased by the 

 Society on March 19, 1881 \ has given me the opportunity of ob- 

 serving a peculiarity in the construction of its trachea of a nature 

 unlike any thing of the kind yet known to me. The windpipe, for 

 the greater part of its course, has the normal avian structure, the 

 tracheal rings, which are ossified and, as usual, notched both before 

 and behind, being of the ordinary form, and separated by but 

 narrow intervals from each other. For a space, however, of about 

 I inch above the largely developed short pair of intrinsic muscles, 

 the interval comprising 8 tracheal rings, it becomes peculiarly 

 modified, the tube itself becoming slightly dUated and flattened antero- 

 posteriorly, whilst the tracheal rings become broader, and ossified along 

 the middle of their depth, the borders only remaining cartilaginous. 

 This ossified part of each ring is slightly concave, so that when 

 seen laterally the cartilaginous margins project slightly from it, the 

 whole ring being thus like a fluted table-napkin ring, when seen in 

 section. The intervals between these peculiar rings are very much 

 deeper than those above, and occupied by delicate membrane only, so 

 that all this part of the trachea is highly elastic. 



The sterno-tracheales are inserted just below the lowest of these 

 peculiar rings, which is the last but three of those composing the 

 trachea- — the next two, which are very narrow, and the last, which 

 is broad and bears the pessulus, being concealed from view by the 

 largely developed syringeal muscles, of which there are four pairs, 

 all, except the small anterior long muscle, being inserted on the ends 

 of the very strong third bronchial semirings. The lateral tracheal 

 muscles are weak, extending, however, nearly to the thoracic end of 

 the tube. 



Nothing like the modification of the trachea here described obtains 

 in any other allied form of Paradise-bird that I have been able to 

 examine (including Paradiseee papuana and rubra, Ptilorhis alberti, 

 Phonygama gouldi, Manucodia atra, Ptilorhynchus violaceus and 

 smithi) ; nor do I know any structure in other birds quite comparable 

 with that now described, which is probably correlated with the very 

 loud harsh note of these birds^. 



In all other respects Seleucides is, as might have been expected, 

 a typical oscine Passerine. 



' SeeP.Z.S. 1881, p. 450. 



' Mr. Wallace, speaking of tliis species, says (Malay Archipelago, ii. p. 254, 

 London, 1869): — "It has a loud shrill cry, to be heard a long way, consisting 

 of c4h, cdh, repeated five or six times in a descending scale ; and at tlie last 

 note it generally flies away." 



