1886.] ON THE TRACHEA AND SYRINX IN CERTAIN BIRDS. 321 



1. Notes on the Convoluted Trachea of a Curassow {Nothocrax 

 urumutum), and on the Syrinx in certain Storks, By 

 Frank E. Beddakd, M.A., F.R.S.E., Prosector to the 

 Society. 



[Eeceived June 1, 1886.] 



My predecessor in the office of Prosector to this Society, Mr. W. 

 A. Forbes, has summed up all the facts that are known with respect to 

 the convoluted trachea of Birds in a communication pnbhshed in the 

 'Proceedings' for 1882(p.347)'. The present note is a supplement to 

 that paper, and deals with the convolute I trachea of the male Notho- 

 crax urumutum. Among the Cracidse. it is the rule fur the males to 

 have a convoluted trachea, while it is very unusual for the female to 

 resemble the male in this respect ; in every case when present the 

 trachea makes a single loop on the right side of the carina sterni — 

 sometimes very short, as in Crax globicera ; sometimes of great 

 length, as in Pauxis galeata, where the loop bends up on the right 

 side of the carina, terminating near to its upper margin. In 

 Nothocrax urumutum the male has a trachea which makes a single 

 loop extending to the end of the carina sterni, as shown in the 

 accompanying drawing (fig. 1, p. 322) ; the female, as Mr. Forbes 

 has already pointed out, has a simple trachea. 



On a Peculiarity in the Syrinx of Xenorhynchus and Abdimia. 



The Order Herodiones appears to be separable into two very 

 distinct families — the ArdeidiB and the Ciconiidse, which differ from 

 each other in certain anatomical peculiarities ; thus the ambiens is 

 always absent in tiie former, and generally, though not always, 

 present in the latter ; the pectoral muscle is separable into two 

 distinct portions in the Storks, while in the Herons it is only incom- 

 pletely separated by a tendinous band. Another well-marked differ- 

 ence is to be found in the structure of the syrinx. 



In the Storks ^ there are no intrinsic muscles ; the lowest rings of 

 the tracliea are very slender and cartilaginous, often incomplete ; 

 and the occasional presence of an upwardly projecting bony piece 

 from the lateral portions of the last three tracheal rings gives to the 

 syrinx an appearance not at all unlike that of the Tracheophonine 

 Passeres. The bronchi are particularly long, " the bifurcation of the 

 trachea occurring at, or even a little above, the superior aperture of 

 the thorax '"; the membrane which unites the two bronchi — which 

 was termed bv Garrod the bronchidesmus ' — is complete in tiie Storks, 

 that is to say, it commences from the very point where the bronchi 

 diverge ; the rings which make up the bronchi themselves are quite 

 continuous, as in the Cathartidae, Ostrich, &c. 



1 Forbes's Collected Papers, p. 338. 

 ^ Garrod's Collected Papers, p. (ifiO. 

 ^ Loc. cif. p. 284. ' Loc. cit. p. 479. 



