1882. ] MANUCODIA ATRA AND OTHER BIRDS. 349 
“ 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 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 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. victorie. 
“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 appreaching 
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 (J. 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, 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 doth 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. Munucodia (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 
