480 



SPARLING FOWL. 



It is, perhaps, too much to say, that we have borrowed all our music 

 from birds ; but some of it is evidently a plagiarism. 



The cuckoo itself has done more for our music than musicians may 

 be willing to allow ; but it is no more than just to a despised bird to 

 say, that from it we have derived the minor scale, whose origin has 

 puzzled so many, — the cuckoo's couplet being the minor third sung 

 downwards. 



The windpipe of the bittern is capable of great distension, and can be 

 filled with air and exploded at pleasure. Dr. Latham informs us that 

 Mr. Lamb had observed this structure in several which he dissected. 

 Whether this membrane has a distinct communication with the trachea, 

 independent of the lungs, is not noticed. If it is only an enlargement 

 of the membrane, that in many birds is observed within the thorax, 

 close to the clavicles, it is a part of that conformation which constitutes 

 the air cells so peculiar to birds. The aspira arteria of those we have 

 dissected had nothing very remarkable, and certainly had no communi- 

 cation with the interior of the body, but through the lungs. If this 

 membrane is a part of the bronchi of the trachea, ours were not capable 

 of any great extension ; the interior part of the divarications is wholly 

 membranous, of a very fine texture ; and the exterior sides are fur- 

 nished with very slender cartilaginous bars, for they do not surround 

 the bronchial tubes of the trachea. This membraneous structure of the 

 part in question is by no means uncommon in other species. 



In fact, the propagation of sound, and different notes in animals, is at 

 present very imperfectly understood ; and the curious conformation ob- 

 served in the trachea of some species of birds, rather puzzle, than con- 

 firm any hypothesis upon the subject. 



If we were to reason mechanically, we might conclude that the laby- 

 rinth at the lower extremity, or the enlargement in the middle of the 

 trachea of some birds, especially the semiossious chambers in the mer- 

 gansers, and some species of ducks, were intended as condensers to 

 assist in the compression of the air for augmenting the sound ; but ex- 

 perience informs us this is not the case, for some birds possessing a 

 labyrinth, have weak voices, exemplified in the mallard or male of the 

 common duck. But as sound is produced by birds from the lower 

 extremity of the trachea, and not from the larynx, the condensation of 

 air before that part cannot promote the force of the expulsion through 

 the soniferous organ, but only serves to modulate the tone.* 



SONG THRUSH. — A name for the Throstle. 



SPARLING FOWL.— A name for the Dundiver. 



