The whole length of a male bird twenty-six inches! Thé'
wing from the carpal joint to the end, seventeen inches and
one quarter: the first feather four inches shorter than thé
second ; the second one inch; shorter than the th ird ; the
fourth a little longer than the third, and the longest in the
wing: the primaries are narrow and pointed/ the tertials-
broad and rounded. The tail in form rather more than
rounded, of slightly angular, the pair of feathers in the
middle being the longest.
The female is smaller than the male; and her plumage, as
also that of young birds before their first moult, has less metallic
lustre.
The various qualities and powers of voice exhibited by
birds in general, and the diversity o f structure found to exist
in the windpipes or tracheae of different species, in some par-:
ticular families, have justly excited the attention and remarks
of several writers. Descriptions and illustrations of the peculiarities
of these parts in some of those species most remarkable
for their deviation from the common form will be found
in the fourth, twelfth, fifteenth, and sixteenth volumes of the
Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.
Among British Birds, the power of imitating the^ sounds,
of the human voice ig .possessed in the greatest perfection by
the Raven, the Magpie, the Jay; and the. Starling. In .proof
of this power in the Raven, many anecdotes might be repeated:
the two following, derived from unquestionable authorities,
are perhaps less known than many o t h e r s “ Ravens
have been taught to articulate short sentences as distinctly
as any Parrot. One, belonging to Mr. Henslow, of
St. Alban’s, speaks so distinctly that, when we first heard it,
We were actually deceived in thinking it was a human voice :
and there is another at Chatham which has made equal proficiency;
for, living within thé vicinity of a guard-house^ it
has more than once turned out the guard- who. thought they
RAVEN. 69
were called .by the sentinel on duty?—-Fauna Bortali-Avne-1
rieana, Swainson and Richardson, Part FI. page 290, note,
The advantageous size of the organ of voice in the Raven,,
and its" perfect. similarity, to .those of all our song-birds, induced
me to select it in illustration of.this subject, although
in the quality of its .tone, there is no resemblance 5 but it
should be borne in mind, thgt this bird possesses the power of
imitating the mbslVdifficuIt of all sounds,—the human voice,
for which numerous muscles appear. to- be necessary, The
illustrations here given,- are exactly of the same size as the
parts themsglyes will, be found in the bird, by any one who is
inclined tb-follow me in the examination.
.The organ of voices' in birds may-bo considered as consisting
of four parts : the glottis! or superior larynx, the tube of
the trachea, the " inferior larynx, with its muscles, and the
l