THE OOLOGIST. 



107 



On June 9, 1903, at Sandiford. this 

 county, we found a Crow's nest con- 

 taining 4 young nearly three-fourths 

 grown, situated between an upright 

 crotch in a slanting willow on the bank 

 of a creek, 25 feet from the ground. 



Nothing unusual about the nest or its 

 site, though a late one, but what struck 

 me as remarkable as I glanced into the 

 nest at the four erect lieads and gaping 

 mouths, was the singular shaped bill 

 of one of the birds. Had not the birds 

 opened their mouths for food, when I 

 gazed into the nest, in all probability 

 the freak would not had been noticed. 

 It was as vociferous as its companions 

 in clammering for food when I made a 

 noise "like a crow" to attract their 

 attention, which caused them to raise 

 their heads and open wide their capric- 

 ious maws for food they expected but 

 didn't get. It was normal in all other 

 respects, fat and healthy. Here is the 

 description of its abnormal bill as I 

 wrote it down at the time in my note 

 book, after a careful examination. Its 

 bill was not quite 2 inches in length, 

 straight for half an inch, or one quarter 

 its length ; where the mandibles sharp- 

 ly diverged the upper one to the left 

 and the lower one to the right. Then 

 they recurved inward so that the tips 

 of the mandibles nearly met, being onl> 

 half an inch apart. The shape of this 

 curious formed bill stronglj resembled 

 an oar lock. 



I meant to secure the freak when it 

 had attained a proper size so as to make 

 an attractive pet, and rear it, and learn 

 whether it would have been possible for 

 it to pick up food or other objects 

 with its curious shaped bill, which I 

 doubt it could have done. But my 

 rascally cousin spoiled all of my con- 

 templated experiments, for he discov- 

 ered the nest several days latter and 

 cruelly killed all of the young by throw- 

 ing them to the ground. Those that 

 survived the shock of the fall met their 

 fate in the creek by drowning. And 



when I remonstrated with him for his 

 cruelty in recklessly killing them he 

 weakly pleaded that "Crows steal 

 corn, " but the amount of corn the Crows 

 are accused of stealing, I told him, did 

 not amount to one-fifth of that which 

 is consumed by the Pigeons his father 

 permitted him to keep in the barn. As 

 far as my observations go the Pigeon is 

 a greater devourer of grain and other 

 seeds than the Crows and Blackbirds 

 combined. But I am digressing. 



In his answer to the Michigan freak 

 the editor attributed the abnormal 

 shaped bill to some accident and asks 

 for an explanation which has not as yet 

 been forthcoming. He thought it 

 would interfere with the bird feeding 

 as it undoubtedly would. He does not 

 say whether he thinks the accident oc- 

 curred to the bird in its embryoic stage 

 or after it had emerged into the world. 



I confess to being an incompetent au- 

 thority upon the subject of incubation 

 but I am inclined to believe that the 

 abnormal growth of both of the birds' 

 bills was caused during their embryoric 

 period of growth for I cannot see how 

 it could have happened latter, my own 

 freak being a young bird supports my 

 theory. I think that the abnormal 

 growth of the two Crows' bills occurr- 

 ed in the eggs and offer this explana- 

 tion. The formation of the embryo oc- 

 cur first in the yolk, and, as it is here 

 that the change first occurs which de- 

 termine the form of the future individ- 

 ual the cause of these abnormalties 

 then, it is my belief, was occasioned by 

 some vital action which occurred in the 

 earliest stage of the formation of the 

 embryos. A friend offered the sugges- 

 tion that they were born in abnormal 

 sized or shaped egg, but I think it un- 

 likely. 



Have any other readers an explana- 

 tion to offer? 



RICHARD F. MILLER, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



July 1, 1905. 



