air is propelled into the larynx; that the key-muscles adjust the cords properly, and the air receives the vibrations, whence sound results, and last, though by no means the least important, that volition controls the whole; for, if this were not the case, every contraction of the chest, and consequent expiration of air, would be attended by a sound, as is the action of illadjusted machinery.

The larynx is the only organ necessarily employed in singing, and the chief instrument in all natural language; and it is not improbable, that the ruder forms of artificial language were spoken mostly from the throat, as indced the dialects of the American Indians indicate, for a child will hardly fail to observe that the Aborigines rarely bring the organs of their mouths in contact, in speaking their own languages. For example, take the following names of persons and places: Opecancanough, Onondaga, Yonondio, Kekataugh, Kaihohage. The language of the South Sea Islanders abounds so greatly in vocal or glottis sounds, that they cannot pronounce a word loaded with mouth-sounds or consonants. As a specimen, the name of one of their kings may be mentioned: Ta-ma-ha-ma-ka! From a knowledge of these facts, you will more readily understand how an individual might employ artificial language, sing admirably, and still be destitute of a tongue; many well authenticated accounts of such instances are recorded, from the earliest age to the present; but it is unnecessary to give them in detail. Deprive man of the larynx, and communities would be bound by a slenderer tie; the song of praise would no longer be wafted on the morning or the evening breeze; the social circle dissolved, man would wander over the earth, distrustful of his fellow; the nobler sentiments of his nature locked up in his own bosom, and the plaint of want unsupplied, the lamentation of

analleviated distress, and the exhibition of passion would be his only language.

It was remarked that the inferior vocal cords were essential to the production of voice; by blowing through the wind pipe of an animal, soon after it is slain, you can produce a sound very similar to the natural voice of the animal, if the larynx remains uninjured. Two quadrupeds, the Ant-cater and Pangolin, a kind of lizard, found only in Hindostan, are entirely dumb. Upon examination of the former, it was found that the wind pipe was unusually short, and the upper part of it, the proper region of the larynx, instead of cartilage or gristle, was a structure of unyielding bone, which sufficiently accounts for the silence of the animal.

CHAPTER XI.

Vocal apparatus of birds-The Mocking bird-Ventriloquism The voice as indicative of feeling or emotion- Various Illustrations-Laughing-Whispering-Sighing.

Voice, as we have defined it, is common both to man and the inferior animals, though varying in quality, from the lay of the nightingale to the hiss of the serpent; from the clear melody of the lark, to the discordant shriek of the raven.

A little observation will teach us, that there must be a great difference in the structure of the vocal apparatus in different animals; a difference nearly proportioned to the diversity in the description and quality of the sounds which they are capable of producing. It is from some peculiarity in the formation of the larynx, that the voice owes its quality

or tone; it is by some difference in this organ, that animals are enabled to make those peculiar sounds which characterize them, and to purr, as the cat; neigh, as the horse; bark, as the dog; roar, as the lion; squeak, as the mouse; or low, as the ox.

The larynx of the feathered race is peculiarly adapted to form that sweet and varied music, emphatically the poor man's minstrelsy, which so often makes our woods and fields "vocal, with concert of sweet sounds." The immense power of voice, with which the feathered tribes make the forests ring, has often been a matter of remark and astonishment. Our astonishment is changed into admiration, when we learn that the lungs of birds are connected with aerial cells, which fill the whole cavity of the body; that, more than this, the very bones are hollow, communicating even with the quills, so that a bird's entire physical structure is nothing more than a living instrument of exquisite workmanship.

The bagpipe is a musical wind instrument, much used by the Highlanders of Scotland, in the performance of their wild but pleasing airs. It consists of a leathern bag communicating with the air by a tube closed with a valve, and pipes of different caliber, into which the air is forced by the performer. The lungs, trachea and larynx of birds, form a complete. natural bagpipe; the lungs are the bag, and supply the wind, and the trachea and cells are the pipes. The larynx of birds is divided into two sections; one being placed at the lower part of the trachea, immediately above the branches to the lungs, and the other occupying the usual position. The lower opening, then, is the reed or mouth-piece, which produces the simple sound, and the upper opening, with its muscles, constitutes the finger-holes, which modify the simple sound into a variety of distinct notes.

We find, however, a considerable diversity in the shape and length of the trachea, but of this, it is not necessary to speak. The notes of soft-billed birds are deeper and more mellowtoned than those of the hard-billed species, which are cheerful and rapid. This is owing to the greater width of the trachea in the former class, and the fact that they sing more from the lower part of the throat, as does the nightingale.

Perhaps there is no bird more entitled to our notice, from the vast, scope and variations of its voice than the manytongued, or Mocking bird. Indeed, I thought a delineation of this feathered ventriloquist, worthy a place in these pages. Here it is:

The natural note of this bird is delightfully musical, but beyond this, it possesses a talent for imitating the notes and cries of other animals, so exactly, as to deceive the individuals that it attempts to mock. Imitating the warblings of

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very

little birds, it decoys them near it, and then pouring upon them, the screams of the hawk or some other bird of prey, drives them away with all speed. Does the school-boy whis. tle some familiar air, as he saunters along the copse-lined path? He starts at hearing the merry measures of "Yankee Doodle," returned, as accurately as a very echo, from the neighboring thicket. Does the laborer trundle his creaking barrow over the rough ground? Another vehicle equally clamorous, swells the concert, creaking and rattling along, apparently in the adjacent swamp. In short, the Mocking bird is the wag of his race and the pest of his neighbors.

The most extraordinary instance of imitation in the human voice, consists in the art of ventriloquism. By this, the practitioner can so modify his voice, as to imitate the different tones of several persons conversing at a distance, and not only to imitate the cries of dogs, cats, and almost every other animal, but also to throw the sound from whatever quarter he chooses. Now issuing in smothered accents from beneath the floor; now of individuals engaged in violent altercation, in the recesses of a side-board, and now, faintly imploring release from a quart bottle standing upon the table.

An individual is said to have amused himself, several years ago, by frequenting the fish-market at Edinburgh, and making a finny captive appear to speak, and give the lie to its vender, upon her affirming that it was fresh and caught in the morning; the fish replying, as often as she made the assertion, "I have been dead a week, and you know it!"

Ventriloquism has given rise to a variety of superstitions among those who are ignorant of the power of the vocal apparatus, and the great skill which may be attained by practice, and perhaps in some instances, aided by a peculiar formation of the Larynx and its accompanying muscles. Ven