488 ZOOLOGY. 
The vibration is also coarser to the ear in the throat than else- 
where. It reminds one there of the rattle connected with exces- 
sive secretion of mucus in the wind-pipe. But, as there is no 
liquid present, I ascribe the sound principally to a rough vibra- 
tion of the epiglottis ; supplemented no doubt, by an exaggerated 
vesicular murmur in the lungs, caused by a quivering, semi- 
convulsive mode of action of the respiratory muscles. 
Perhaps all this may be familiar to most people, and I may have 
been before very unobservant in supposing the purring to be a 
general tremor of the whole body, having no connection with the 
breathing process. 
Since writing the above note I have looked through a number 
of physiological works, without finding anything about ‘ purring ;” 
but at last, in the *“ Cyclopzedia of Anatomy and Physiology,” 
find the following remarks (Article Voice, Vol. iv, p. 1490) :— 
“The whole of the feline order [sic] are remarkable for the 
prominence of the superior ligaments of the larnyx, by which 
inferior ligaments; but we [J. Bishop] were unable to detect 
them; nor could Cuvier, Wolff, Casserius and others, succeed in 
finding them.” 
This shows that the vocal nature of purring has been observed. 
I am sorry not to be able to refer to the memoir of Vicq. @’ Azyt 
‘tOn the Anatomy of the Vocal Organs in Mammals,” 1779, to find 
whether he goes into detail in regard to it. Probably, in an ana- 
tomical treatise he does not. 
Tue “ Wittow Wanps” rrom Burrarp’s INLET. — Some pecu- 
liar specimens from British Columbia, resembling peeled willow 
switches were exhibited at the last meeting of the British Associa- 
tion, and were commented on in “Nature” and elsewhere by 
naturalists, among whom, Dr. P. L. Sclater (on the authority of 
some sea captain who stated that they were derived from a fish) 
suggested that if the statement were correct they might be the 
hardened notochord of some unknown fish. Several of the gen- 
tlemen referred to suggested that these organisms were the axes 
of aleyonoid polypes allied to Pennatula or Virgularia, and Mr. R. 
E. C. Stearns, in a paper lately read before the California Acad- 
emy of Sciences, took the same view, suggesting that they might 
be allied to Umbellularia. That this view is the correct one, and 
