Occasional Notes. 165 
is inflated with air and becomes erect ; and in the com- 
mon representations in popular books on natural history, 
from which so many necessarily acquire their informa- 
tion, this appendage is shown in this position, greatly 
elongated and distended, and projecting straight upward 
from the top of the beak. It must be confessed that this 
position is the one generally found in the stuffed bird, 
and it has given rise to the belief that it is the natural 
position. Recently however I have been able to examine 
and observe two living birds, which have been kept in 
the town for some time, and I have been able at the same 
time to note the methods in which their notes are uttered. 
The caruncle is never carried upright. The erect posi- 
tion, in fact, is an impossible one, since the organ is 
made up of very fine elastic tissue, which causes it to 
depend lower and lower over one side of the beak during 
extension. When the bird is about to utter its charac- 
teristic notes, this appendage slowly becomes greatly 
elongated —to as much as five inches, I have observed at 
times. At the conclusion of the note, the organ may 
remain extended till the next note, or may be partially 
retracted ; but when a long interval takes place, the 
structure is always allowed to shrink up to about half an 
inch or an inch in length, at will ; and it then hangs 
against the beak. During extension, the caruncle is 
never distended with air, but is always in a state of 
collapse. 
When the appendage is fully elongated, the bird 
suddenly inflates its lungs, right and left, by inhaling — 
almost by a swallowing action — two great draughts of air ; 
but the method by which this is done depends upon 
which of its two characteristic notes it intends to utter. 
