1882.] MANUCODIA ATRA AND OTHER BIRDS. 349 



" Having recently purchased a pair of those elegant birds, the 

 Manucodia gouldi, which had been shot at Caj)e 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 dried 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 diiferent 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 vpcre 

 found about the same locality as the two fine species of Rifle-birds 

 obtained also at Cape York — Ptilorhis (dberti 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 particularly 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 

 hi pairs ; and both birds can generally be secured.' " 



I may remark that, in all the specimens of the couvoluted 

 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 jmblished, 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 figuie, 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, it is interesting to observe that the validity of the 

 separation is confirmed by what we now know of the tracheal con- 

 formation of the two groups in question. 



Phonygama (as represented by P. keraudreni and gouldi) has the 

 trachea (at least usually) convoluted in both sexes, that of the adult 

 male being spirally convoluted several times, whilst that of the female 

 forms a single curve with a loop to the right. Manucodia (in M. 

 chalybeata, jobiensis, and atra), on the other hand, has the trachea 

 convoluted in the male only, the convolution being in the form of a 



