The Zoologist — May, 1874. 



3999 



a considerable vacant space, so much so that on viewing the head in profile 

 I can see j^lainlj between them, any object that happens to be on the 



other side. The bird has the greatest difficulty in obtaining food ; as the 

 mandibles do not meet it has no ability to pick up peas or grain, but it 

 manages to glean a few bread-crumbs, and on these it has hitherto subsisted. 

 — Edward Newman. 



lalformation in Upper Mandible of a Redshank. — On the 16th of 

 August, 1873, my brother shot a redshank near Orford, Suffolk, with an 

 apparently double upper mandible. It appears that by accident, possibly 

 whilst fighting, or by a grazed shot, or, as Professor Newton suggests, 

 through coming in contact with a telegraph-wire, the upper mandible has 

 been struck just below the nasal aperture; this has driven the anterior 

 portion of that mandible out of place, which, no longer having the lower 

 mandible to support it, is curved downwards by its own weight : since the 

 injuiy, however, Nature, with her marvellous healing power, has renewed 

 the upper surface of the posterior portion of the upper mandible to a great 

 extent, and this part has grown a little. I have no doubt that in course of 

 time this stump would have formed a new upper mandible and the injured 

 portion have dropped off. The bird, as might be expected, was in very bad 

 condition, and so weak that it could scarcely fly ; it was a bird of the year, 

 and must have sustained this damage before its beak was fully developed, 

 as the upper mandible, which of course has not grown since it was injured, 

 if straight and in its correct position would now be more than a quarter of 

 an inch shorter than when grown to its normal length. It is wonderful how 



