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Show 348 MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE BIRDS OF CHINA. [May ~, 80. CERYLE LUGUBRIS, Temm. Pl. Col. 548. A bird shot at Ningpo and described to me by a friend answers to this species. 81. MEROPS DAUDINI, CUV. ; G. R. Gray's Hand-list of Birds. Merops philippensis, Ibis, 1865, pp. 230, 348, 1870, p. 91. Merops philippinus, Ibis, 1866, p. 129. Procured at Swatow, For the edification of our Indian friends it is well to state here that the so-called M. quinticolor from India is not the same as the Javan bird. The former differs from the latter in having the under neck blotched with chestnut, and the tail green instead of blue. The Indian species should stand as M. erythrocephalus, Brisson, Av. iv. p. 563. 82. UPUPA EPOPS, L.; Zool. 1858, p. 6229 ; Ibis, 1860, p. 49, 1861, pp. 254, 328, 1867, p. 236 ; P. Z. S. 1863, p. 264. From Canton to Pekin. I described in the ' Zoologist' for 1858, and in the P. Z. S. for 1863, the peculiar way in which the Hoopoe produces its notes, by puffing out the sides of its neck and hammering on the ground at the production of each note, thereby exhausting the air at the end of the series of three which make up its song. Before it repeats its call it repeats the puffing of the neck, with a slight gurgling noise. When it is able to strike its bill the sound is the correct " hoo-hoo-hoo ; " but when perched on a rope and only jerking out the song with nods of the head, the notes more resemble the syllables " hoh-hoh-hoh." Mr. Darwin makes use of this last fact to show that some birds have instrumental means to produce their music (Descent of Man, ii. p. 62). It is not to this point, however, that I wish at present to call attention; but to the fact of the bird's puffing out the sides of its neck. It is generally supposed that the song of a bird is produced by actions of the lower larynx on air passing up the bronchial tubes, onwards and outwards through the main tube or trachea. The trachea of the Hoopoe is not dilatable ; but its oesophagus is ; and the puffing of its neck is caused by the bulging of its oesophagus with swallowed air. There is no connexion between the oesophagus and the trachea, and apparently no organ at the entrance to the former that could modify sound ; what action, then, can this swallowed air be made to take in the production of the bird's notes? Pigeons have strikingly large air-crops, which they empty with each long coo, and refill before they coo again. Many birds swell out the throat when calling or singing, and others move it up and down; these actions must also be caused by the swallowed air in the oesophagus, and must modify the sounds in some way as variously used, adding power and richness in some cases, or giving ventriloquistic effect in others. This question seems never to have been inquired into before; and I throw out the hint in hopes that others may help to elucidate the matter with their investigations. As regards Pigeons, Mr. W . B. Tegetmeier suggests " that the dilated oesophagus and crop serve as a chamber of resonance, the air in |