256 



ON VOICE AND LANGUAGE; 



modify the simple sound into an infinite variety of distinct notes, and at the 

 same time g-ive them utterance. 



Here, however, as among quadrupeds, we meet with a considerable diver- 

 sity in the structure of the vocal apparatus, and especially in the length and 

 diameter of the tube or trachea, not only in the different species, but often in 

 the different sexes of the same species, more particularly among aquatic 

 birds. Thus the trachea is straight in the tame or dumb swan (anas Olor) of 

 both sexes ; while in the male musical swan (anas Cygnus) it winds into a 

 large convolution contained in the hollow of the sternum. In the spoon-bill 

 (platalea Leucorodia), as also in the mot-mot pheasant (phasianus Mot-mot), 

 and some others, similar windings of the trachea occur, not enclosed in the 

 sternum. The males of the duck and merganser (Anas and Mergus) have, at 

 the inferior larynx, a bony addition to the cavity which contributes to 

 strengthen their voice. 



Many of the frog genus have a sac or bag in the throat, directly communi- 

 cating with the larynx, as the tree frog (rana arborea), while the green frog 

 (rana esculenta) has two considerable pouches in the cheeks, which it inflates 

 at the time of coupling, by two openings close to the glottis. And it is on 

 this account they are able to give forth that kind of croaking music which 

 they generally begin in the evening and continue through the greater part of 

 the night. Two or three species, possessed of a similar kind of apparatus, 

 are very clamorous animals ; and, pretending to a knowledge of the weather, 

 are peculiarly noisy before rain or thunder-storms ; while several, as the 

 jocular and laughing toad (rana risihunda and r. hombina) are of a merrier 

 mood, and seem to imitate with tolerable exactness the laugh of the human 

 voice, in the hey-dey of their activity, which is always in the evening. 



Among the bird tribes there are some possessed of powers of voice so sin- 

 gular, independently of that of their own natural music, that I cannot consent 

 to pass them over in total silence. The note of the pipra musica or tuneful 

 manakin, is not only intrinsically sweet, bat forms a complete octave ; one 

 note succeeding another in ascending and measured intervals, through the 

 whole range of its diapason. This bird is an inhabitant of St. Domingo, of a 

 black tint, with a blue crown and yellow front and rump ; about four inches 

 long, very shy, and dexterous in eluding the vigilance of such as attempt to 

 take it. The imitative power of several species of the corvus and pslttacus 

 kinds is well known ; the jays and parrots are those most commonly taught, 

 and the far-famed parrot of the late Colonel O'Kelly, which could repeat 

 twenty of our most popular songs, and sing them to their proper tunes, has 

 been, I suppose, seen and heard by most of us. The bullfinch (loxia Pyrrhula\ 

 however, has a better voice, as well as a more correct taste in copying musi- 

 cal tones, and the bird breeders of Germany find a lucrative employment in 

 training multitudes of this family for a foreign market. 



The talents of the nightingale (motacilla Lucina) for speaking are, like- 

 wise, said to be very extraordinary, and even equal to his talents for singing. 

 But where is the man, whose bosom burns with a single spark of the love of 

 nature, that could for one moment consent that this pride and delight of the 

 groves should barter away the sweet wildness of its native wood-notes for 

 any thing that art can offer in its stead ? 



There is no species, however, so much entitled to notice on account of its 

 voice, as the poly glottis, or mocking-bird. This is an individual of the thrush 

 kind ; its own natural note is delightfully musical and solemn ; but beyond 

 this it possesses an instinctive talent of imitating the note of every other kind 

 of singing bird, and even the voice of every bird of prey, so exactly, as to de- 

 ceive the very kinds it attempts to mock. It is moreover playful enough to 

 find amusement in the deception : and takes a pleasure in decoying smaller 

 birds near it by mimicking their notes, when it frightens them almost to death, 

 or drives them away with all speed, by pouring upon them the screams of 

 such birds of prey as they dread. 



Now it is clear that the imitative, like the natural voice, has its seat in the 

 cartilages and other moveable powers that form the larynx : for the great 



