ON THE ARMATURE OF THE LOWER BILL OF THE 
HATCHING TRINGA PUSILLA, Whitson. 
By Dr. Davip F. WEINLAND. 
On the 6th of July last, I caught at Nahant a young of the 
common Peep (Zringa pusilla, Wils.) of our seashore. This 
bird could have been hatched from the egg hardly more than 
one or two days, for it still wore the hard, horny tubercle on 
the upper bill, which we find in all birds when hatching, and 
which serves to knock open the eggshell. But I was surprised to 
find a similar armature on the lower bill, though less prominent, 
which, as far as I know, never has been observed before. Now 
the upper horn, as we may call it, reaching a good deal beyond 
the lower, this latter one cannot work as a knocking hammer, as 
the upper does; therefore I suppose that the horn on the lower 
bill serves only as a support for the upper bill while knocking ; 
this is the more likely, as the bill of this kind of birds is at 
that time rather long, slender and weak. 
I am persuaded that this armature of the lower bill occurs in 
all Tringee ; it may even occur in all Waders when hatching. 
In reference to the structure of this organ in the upper and 
lower bill, I will add, that it is not a mere excrescence of the 
sheath of the bill, but formed separately and only attached to 
it. On the contrary in turtles, where we find the same organ, 
it is a mere excrescence of the sheath of the bill, and while in 
birds it drops at once, soon after hatching, in turtles it is 
gradually. worn off. In both, however, birds and turtles, it 
consists of the same flat epidermidal cells which compose also 
the horny sheath of the bill. 
CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 1856. 
