'Tt [Vol. XXIX. 



Mr. W. P. Pycraft gave a brief descriptiou of the syrinx 

 of the Jack Snipe {Limnocryptes gallinula), comparing it 

 with that of the Common Snipe and Woodcock. 



He showed that the syrinx of the Jack Snipe (fig. 1, p. 78) 

 differed not only from that of its immediate allies, but from 

 all other members of the Charadriiformes hitherto described. 

 As in the Snipe and Woodcock, the syringeal chamber was 

 formed by a fusion of the four hindmost tracheal rings, though 

 in the Jack Snipe the lower ends of the rings remained more 

 or less cartilaginous, forming a subcrescentic plate of carti- 

 lage in the middle line of the ventral aspect of the chamber. 

 Closely attached by fibrous tissue to the hinder border of 

 the syringeal chamber was a semi-ring, which seemed to 

 have been derived from the tracheal, not the bronchial series 

 of rings, and which, so far as Mr. Pycraft could make out, 

 was met with in no other bird. He said that in the accom- 

 panying figure this semi-ring, for the sake of clearness, 

 had been made to appear as if widely separated from the 

 syrinx (fig. 1, S.-f.s.i\), The lower third of this peculiar 

 semi-ring was cartilaginous, and was attached by a bundle of 

 short fibrous threads to a lingulate plate of cartilage, which in 

 turn was attached to the inferior end of the first bronchial 

 ring (fig. 1, B r.L). What part this peculiar semi-ring and 

 its accessory lingulate cartilage played in the production of 

 the remarkable sounds which the Jack Snipe was known 

 to produce, was a matter for further discovery. The 

 identity of the first bronchial ring was established by the 

 insertion of the intrinsic muscle, which was of the normal 

 type. 



If the syrinx of the Common Snipe (fig. 2) were contrasted 

 with that of the Jack Snipe on the one hand and that of the 

 Woodcock (fig. 3) on the other, it would be found to hold 

 an intermediate position between the two, in so far as the 

 expansion of the syringeal chamber was concerned ; but the 

 hindmost of the fused rings was wider than in either of the 

 contrasted forms, and was produced further backwards, 

 giving a more pronounced V-shape to this end of the 



