Another Abnormal Bill. — The character of the malformed bill sub- 
mitted by Mr. B. S. Bowdish in the last number of * The Auk’ seems a 
common type in abnormalities of that kind. I have in my possession 
the head of a Crow ( Corvus americanus) afflicted with the same kind of 
malformation. In this case, however, the upper mandible is bent com- 
pletely down and around so as to point over the bird’s shoulder. The 
lower mandible is not so greatly elongated as in Mr. Bowdish’s speci- 
men, however, but the notches he speaks of where the mandibles cross 
Malformed Bill of Crow ( Corvus americanus). Nat. size. 
are very deep. There is no sign of injury to account for the peculiar 
growth. 
It raises an interesting conjecture in regard to the winter and early 
spring food supply of these birds. It was killed early in March near 
Port Huron, Mich., 1901, and was evidently starving to death when the 
shot gun put it out of misery. Its plumage, however, was in good shape, 
not quite as glossy perhaps as some, but it was quite evident that the 
bird did not suffer from lack of food at the time of its last moult. What 
food it could have lived upon during the winter is a subject for specula- 
tion. It was an impossibility to pick up anything from the ground with 
such a bill, and whatever its diet was during the winter, it could not be 
found in the more northern ranges in early spring. — P. A. Taverner, 
Chicago. III. 
Ank, XXI, Apr., 1904, p. ^ 1 % 
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