On the voice of birds.

  • Duncan, Philip Bury, 1772-1863.
Date:
[between 1830 and 1839?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the voice of birds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The trachea being composed of entire rings, birds can contract or lengthen it at pleasure. It varies also much in different birds, as to length, contracti- bility, figure, and convolution, which have all a great influence on the voice. In mammiferous animals, on the contrary, the trachea is of an uniform structure. The variety of tones in birds is produced in three ways; 1st, by the variations of the glottis, which cor- respond to the lips of a person playing on a trumpet, or the reeds of a clarionet. 2nd, By the variations in the length of the trachea, which correspond to the convolutions of a French horn, or the different length of organ pipes. 3d. By the contraction or enlargement of the superior glottis, which corre- sponds to the use of the hand in the player of a bugle, or to the closed chimneys of organ pipes h. These points being established, it is impossible not to see that the organ of voice in birds is a sim- ple wind instrument, and has nothing to do with strings, unless you choose to call a French horn a h Aristotle, in his 4th book, c. 9. of animals, speaking of the voice of birds, says, “ Birds have voice, and the power of arti- “ culating words in proportion as their tongue is large or small. “ In some species of birds the male and female have the same “ voice, in others they have a different voice. Small birds have “ more voice and are more noisy than great birds. In all the “ species the pairing time is the time when they sing most. “ Some, like the quail, are vocal when they are fighting. Some “ cry out before the combat, as if to defy their enemy: some “ cry out after the combat, like the cock. Sometimes the male “ and female sing equally, as do the nightingales. The female “ ceases, however, to sing when she sits on her eggs, or has “ young. It is otherwise with the cock and the quail. The “ male in these species has the most voice; the female does not “ sing.” ■ 111 t .IDj nid a - 1 j’d ti !i idi Je; if! 1® i(S 4 iti ii ‘rfl %