Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1875 — The Voices of Animals. [ARTICLE]

The Voices of Animals.

Aquatic animals are mute. A world of radiates, mollusk* and Ashes, therefore, would be silent. Insects are about the only Invertebrates capable of producing sounds. Their, organs are usually external, while those of higher animals are internal. Insects of rapid flight generally make the most noise. In some the noise is produced by friction (stridulation); in, others by the passage of air through the spiracles (humming). The buzzing of flies and bees is caused in part by the vibrations of the wings; .but it comes maiffly from the spiracles of the thorax. Snakes and lizzards have no vocal chords and can only hiss. Frogs croak and crocodiles roar by the vibrations of the glottis. The huge tortoise of the Galapagos Islands utters a hoarse, bellowing noise. The vocal apparatus in birds is situated at the lower end of the trachea, where it divides into the two bronchi. It consists mainly of a long drum with a cross bone, having a vertical membrane attached to its upper edge. Five pair of muscles (in the songsters) adjust the length of the windpipe, to the pitch of the glottis. The various notes are produced by differences in the Blast of air, as well as by changes in the tension of the membrane. The range ot notes is commonly within an octave. Birds of the same family have a similar voice. All the parrots have a harsh utterance; geese ami ducks crows, magpies and jayscaw; while the warblers differ in the quality rather than the kind of notes. Some species possess 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 mammals, unlike that of birds, is in the upper part of the larynx. It consists of four cartilages, of which the largest (the thyroid) produces the prominence in the human throat known as Adam’s apple, aud two elastic bands called vocal chords, just below the glottis or upper opening of the windpipe. The various tones are determined by the tension of these chords, which is effected by the raising or lowering of the thyroid prominence. The will cannot influence the contraction of the vocalizing muscles, except in the very act of vocalization. The vocal sounds produced by mammals may be distinguished into the ordinary voice, the Cry and the song. The second is the sound made by brutes. The whale, porpoise, armadillo, ant-eater, porcupine and giraffe are generally silent. The bat's voice is probably the shrillest sound audible to human ears. There is little modulation in Unite utterance. The opossum purs, the sloth and kangaroo moan, the hog grunts or squeals, the tapir whistles, the stag bellows and the elephant gives a hoarse, trumpet sound from its trunk and a deep groan from its throat. All sheep have a guttural voice; ali the cows low, from the bison to the musk ox; all the horses and donkeys heigh; all the cats inirtu, from the domestic animal to the lion; all the bears growl, and the canine family (fox, wolf and dog) b<yk, howl and whine. The howling monkeys and gorillas have a large Cavity or sac in the throat for resonance, enabling them to utter a powerful voice; and one of the gibbons has tlie remarkable power of emitting a complete octave of musical notes. The human voice, taking the male and female together, has a range of nearly 7 four octaves. Man’s power of speech 1 , or the utterance of articulate sounds, is due to his intellectual development rather than to any structural difference between him and the apes. Song is produced by the glottis, speech by the mouth. — Scientific American.