HUMBOLDT ON THE ORGANS OF THE VOICE, 



341 



legs ; it is then folded back (in nearly the same manner as M. Bonpland 

 found in the bronchi of the crocodile), forms a considerable sinuosity 

 in reascending, and then enters the lungs. The trachea of the female, 

 which is shorter in the proportion of five to two, does not form this 

 sinuosity, but enters, without folding itself, at once into the bronchi. 

 Here then we have a bird in which the air forming his voice passes 

 between the legs before arriving at the glottis. The Indians observe 

 that the cry of the female of this species is much less shrill than that 

 of the male, whose trachea presents so singular a construction. M. 

 Cuvier has communicated to me the important observation that, in 

 the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) the trachea does not, in 

 either sex, present this sinuosity, and that, in the Cygnus canonis, 

 the female presents the elongation of this organ. It is remarkable that 

 such differences should exist in species nearly resembling it. 



In passing from Santa- Fe de Bogota to Quito, during the rainy 

 season in 1801, we found the banks of the Canca covered with the 

 Palamedea bispinosa, the kamichi of Buffon, which approximates in 

 size to the condor of the Andes. It is called by the inhabitants the 

 Uitre de Sienega. It walks about very gravely in marshy places, 

 uttering constantly a uniform cry, somewhat resembling the sound 

 produced by a boy's whistle (soufflet). 



Staying some days at Buga, I had an opportunity of obtaining one 

 of these birds, and of examining its larynx. I saw with surprise that 

 it was rather its trachea than its inferior larynx which enabled it to 

 produce such extraordinary sounds. This trachea diminishes in dia- 

 meter from the bony glottis to the inferior larynx : it contracts in the 

 proportion of two to three ; but before arriving at the inferior larynx, 

 it suddenly becomes much wider ; it becomes nearly five-sixths larger 



Enlargement of the trachea in Palamedea bispinosa, with the insertion of the two muscles, 



