Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-07-30

The voices of Animals,

Aquatic animals are mute. A
world of radiates, mollusks, and
fishes, therefore would be silent =
Insects are about the only inVerte-
brates capable of producing sounds.
Their organs are usually external,
while those of higher animals are
internal. Insects of rapid fight gen
orally make the most noise. In
some the noise is produced by fric-
tion (stridulation), in others by the
passage of air through the aspira-
cles (humming). The buzzing of
flies and bees are caused in part by
the vibrations of the wings; but it
comes mainly from the spiracles of
tho thOrax. Snakes and Lizards
have no vocal cords, and can only
hiss. Frogs croak, and croeodiles
roar by the vibrations of the CLOTHS.
The huge tortoise of the Galapagos
islands utter q hoarse believing
noise. The vocal apparatus in birds
is situated at the lower end of the
traches, where it divides INTO the
two bronchi. 1t consists mainly of
a long drum with cross bone, hav-
ing a vertical membrane attached to
its upper edge. Five pairs of mus
cles, lin the songsters) adjust the
length of the windpipe to the pitch
of the CLOTHS. The various notes
are produced by differences of the
blast of air, as well as changes IN the
tension of the membrane. The
range of notes is commonly within
octave. Birds of the same family
have similar voice. An the par
rots have a harsh utterance; geese
and ducks quack, crows, magpies
and jaws cav; while the warblers
differ in the quality rather than the
kind of notes. Some species pos
sess great compass of voice. The
bell bird can be heard nearly three
miles; and Livingstone said he could
distinguish the voices of the ostrich
and lion only by knowing that the
former roar by day and the latter
by night. The vocal organ of ami
mails, unlike that of birds, is on the
upper part of the larynx and consists
of four cartilages, of which the lar
gest (the thyroid produces a prom
nence in the human throat known
as Adams apple, the two elastic
banks, called vocal chords, just be-
low the glOttis or upper opening of
the Windpipe. The various tones
are determined by the means Of
these chords, which is effected by
the raising or lowering of the thy
roid prominence. The will cannot
influence the contraction of thevo-
calization. The vocal sound pro-
duced by mammals may be dis
tinguished from the ordinary voice,
they cry and they sing. The second
is the sound made by brutes. The
whale porpoise, armadillo, anteater,
porcupine, and giraffe are generally
silent. The bats voice is probably
the shrillest sound audible to human
ears. There is little modulation in
human ears. The opossum purs,
the sloth and kangaroo moan, the
hog g1unts or squeals, the tapir
whistles, the stag bellows, and the
elephant gives a hoarse, trumpet
sound from its trunk and deep
groan from its throat. All sheep
have cultural voice; all the cows
low, from the bison to the musk OK;
allthe horses and donkeys neigh;
all the cats NEW, from the domestic
animal to the lion; all the bears
growl; and all the canine family
fox, wolf, and dog) bark, howl, and
whine. The howling monkeys and
gorillas have a large cavity or sac
In the throat for resonance, enabling
them to utter powerful voice; and
one of the gibbons has the remaTka-
BILE power of emitting a complete
octave of musical notes The hu-
man voice, taking the male and fe-
male together, have range cOE near
ly four octaves. Mans power of
speech, or the utterance of articulate
sounds, is due to his intellectual de-
rather than to any struct-
ural difference between him and the
the apes. Song is produced by the
glottis, speech by the mouth.
..i'5 Scientific AnaericGn. {,