ORDER GALLINiE. 131 



and they exist but in very few species of birds. There was 

 nothing but an inflation of the last rings, which are the 

 widest. The base of the lower lamyx is supported by a 

 cartilage, which is a round, membranous, crenulated plate, 

 on which rises a small compressed bone. M. de Humboldt 

 believes, that the want of sacs in the lower end of the larynx 

 of this bird, is supplied by the mechanism of the upper 

 larynx, which, to a certain extent, says M. Temminck, may 

 be true ; always keeping in mind, that mechanism of what- 

 ever kind, whether in the upper larynx or in the tube of the 

 trachea, can only serve to give a greater compass to the voice, 

 the sounds of which are formed invariably in birds, in the 

 lower larynx only, and by the aid of such mechanism as 

 belongs to it. 



The upper larynx is thus described by M. de Humboldt : — 

 Above the aperture of the trachea, rises a sort of chink, which 

 leads to two membranous pouches ; by blowing through the 

 bronchiae into the tube of the trachea, these pouches evidently 

 become inflated. At the bottom is a triangular socle, similar 

 to what we have already described to exist in the preceding 

 species. 



The parraquas lay four, five, or six eggs. They construct 

 their nests on small and very tufted branches, at a height of 

 about seven or eight feet. When the young are disclosed, 

 they descend in a short time to the ground, and the mother 

 conducts them, just after the manner of a hen. The usual 

 aliments of these birds are very various ; but when young, 

 and having but just quitted the nest, they live almost always 

 on worms or small insects, which the mother finds for them 

 by scratching up the earth. When they grow large and are 

 able to fly, they quite abandon the mother. Beside fruits 

 and grains, they also eat the tender grass ; accordingly they 

 are often seen on the ground, along the savannahs or prairies, 

 where there is young and green grass, and that pretty early 



K 2 



