J  Oiseaux,  Art.LeButor.  §  Anim.  Nat.  iii,  264.
VOCAL  ORGANS.  f  245

be  filled  with  air  and  exploded  at  pleasure ;  and  the
situation  of  it  is  at  the  divarication  of  the  windpipe;
it  is  capable  of  great  distension,  and  is  probably  the
cause  of  this  singular  phenomenon,  observed,  we
believe,  in  no  other  bird,  at  least  in  the  same  degree.
We  have  had  no  opportunity  ourselves  of  witnessing
this,  but  are  informed  by  Dr.  Lamb,  that,  on  dissect-
ing a  female,  he  observed  that  after  the  windpipe
(trachea)  had  passed  into  the  chest  (thorax)  to  the
lower  part  of  the  breast-bone  (sternum) ,  it  was  re-
flected to  the  superior  portion  of  the  latter,  and  then,
on  a  second  reflection,  divided  and  passed  into  the
lungs."  He  adds,  "  I  have  been  assured,  that  by
filling  the  windpipe  with  air  after  death  and  exploding
it  again  suddenly,  a  similar  noise  will  be  produced*."


Singularly  formed  Windpipe  of  the  Butor.
The  cry  of  the  bittern  has  been  sometimes  con-
founded with  that  of  the  snipe,  though  there  is  little  if
any  resemblance  between  the  twof.  It  is,  on  the  con-
trary, so  like  the  bleating  of  a  goat,  that  Klein  arid
Rzaczynski  have  named  it  the  celestial  goat  (Capella

*  General  Hist,  of  Birds,  ix.  98.  See  also  Ward,  Nat.  Hist,  of
Birds,  iii.  150.
f  J.  Rennie,  Mag.  Nat.  Hist.  i.  495.
y  3


246


HABITS  OF  BIRDS.
