242 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [^P^"- 1^, 



proper voice, but only " hiss like a reptile." Whether the 

 musculature of the lower part of the bronchi in the females pro- 

 duces any difference in the sounds uttered, I am not aware. 



This is the principal fact in the structure of the windpipe 

 of Sarcorhamphus to which I have desu-ed to call attention. 

 There is, however, another matter to which I did not give any 

 attention in my description of the windpipe of the female Condor. 

 Prof. Fiirbiinger has remarked that " Die .... Oathai-tidfe heben 

 sich durch vollkommene bronchiale Ringe besonders hervor." ^ I 

 have briefly referred to the fact ^ that in the members of this 

 group there is, at least sometimes, an imperfectly formed tracheo- 

 bronchial syrinx — imperfect in the fact that there is no great modi- 

 fication of the rings at the bifurcation, but suggesting a tracheo- 

 bronchial syrinx in the incompleteness of the bronchial rings, 

 which are indeed semi-rings. In SarcorJia'm'phxis gryphus this 

 incompleteness of the bronchial rings is very plain, as the drawing 

 submitted herewith (text-fig. 30, p. 241) shows. Moreover, the 

 membranous space lying between the approximated ends of the 

 bronchial semi-rings on the dorsal aspect of the windpipe is 

 prolonged upwards for a considerable distance along the trachea, 

 gradually diminishing until the tracheal rings, at first incomplete, 

 become fully complete rings passing without a break right round 

 the windpipe. There is even— at least I so interpret it — a slight 

 suggestion of a pessulus ; this is in the shape of a small piece of 

 cartilage, again divided into two, which lies at the point of 

 bifurcation of the tiachea into the two bi'onchi. 



I have had an opportunity of comparing the windpipe of the 

 Condor with that of the Ameiican Yultui-e, its near ally, Gathartes 

 atratus, of which several specimens have recently died in the 

 Society's Gardens. These examples were of both sexes, aiid I 

 have not been able to note any sexual difference such as charac- 

 terizes the Condor. In Cathartes, moreover, the bronchus, 

 although it does end in a short membranous tract, is not invested 

 with muscle as in the female /Sarcorhamphus. In fact, the 

 appearance of the bronchi at their termination in the lung is 

 much like that of the male Sarcorhamphus. Furthermore, in 

 each case that I examined, three muscles attached at one end to 

 the ribs were inserted on to the surface of the lung in the vicinity 

 of the entrance of each bronchus. It seems to be reasonable to 

 compare these muscles, which are of coui'se the usual lung-muscles 

 ('' diaphragm " of some authors), to those found in most birds 

 ai'ising fi-om the ribs and implanted upon the membrane coveiing 

 the lungs. But in addition to this comparison, it seems also 

 possible to compare them especially with the "tags "of muscle 

 already described in the Condor as connected with — or, indeed, 

 arising from — the sheet of muscle covering the membranous 

 termination of the bronchus. In Cathartes, however, all trace of 

 an attachment to the bronchus itself was lost ; the muscles are 



1 Untersuchungen z. Morph. u. Sj'st. d. Vogel, Amsterdam, 1888, p. 1086. 



2 The Structure and Classification of Birds, London, 1898, p. 482. 



