2506 The Zoologist— March, 1871. 



regulated by an anangenieut of muscles. When the mouth is 

 opened the gape can be extended, if needful, also fixed at any 

 angle by this arrangement or provision : the upper mandible being 

 raised, the rami are drawn forwards and fixed as required by the 

 muscles attached for that purpose. When the m.outh is closed, the 

 processes glide back again over the upper borders of the lower 

 mandible until checked by the mechanism arranged for that pur- 

 pose. The object of this joint would appear to be, to give greater 

 powers of extension and distension to the mouth, to enable the 

 lower mandible when fixed to act as a sort of shovel whilst feeding 

 along the sandy shingle of the river's bed, whilst the readily mobile 

 upper mandible can act as a sieve and a trap upon it to filter 

 matters passed through it and retain those portions fit for food, 

 also to accommodate its capacity to the varying size of the prey 

 captured. 



Whatever may be the real objects for which an Allwise Pro- 

 vidence ordained it, this arrangement is undoubtedly so interesting 

 that I ardently desire an ojiportunity of examining its details more 

 minutely by means of a thorough dissection. 



W. W. BOULTON. 



Continental Notes on Ornithology. 

 By J. II. GuKNEY, jun., F.L.S. 



1 CAN fully confirm Mr. Galcombe's remarks on the scarcity of 

 oirds in France, and on the Continent generally. I think this 

 paucity is caused by the absence of hedges, and partly by the 

 prevalence of the poplar tree, which gives no perching room. 

 Magpies are almost the only birds one sees from the train 

 windows. 



Having recently returned from Metz, I think a few remarks on 

 the birds of that district may not be uninteresting, though T had 

 not much leisure for Natural History, my time being fully taken up 

 with more in)porlant matters ; but, as in some sort supplementary 

 to Mr. Gatcombe's able paper, 1 shall proceed to give a sketch of 

 some of the more noticeable birds in Lorraine, concluding with 

 some notes on the museums visited by me. 



Mr. Gatcombe says that the common buzzard {Buteo vulyaris, 

 Bechst.) was the most plentiful bird of prey he observed in a wild 



