A Cross-Billed Blackbird
A Cross-billed Blackbird
A female Brewer Blackbird (Ewphague cyanocephalus), caught in my yard in Benicia, California, in a bird trap on April 21, 1933, had an abnormally-shaped bill. The upper mandible extended downward and to the right of the lower, the tips of the two being .08 inch apart. The upper mandible had a bulge or overgrowth on the right edge. This may have been due to the fact that this edge did not hit upon the lower mandible and therefore did not-receive normal wear. The length of the exposed culmen was .74 of an inch. The mandibles closed somewhat like a pair of scissors, which accounted, no doubt, for the laceration of the end of the tongue and the absence of its extreme tip. Feeding would appear to have been difficult. Being an adult, however, it must have subsisted successfully for a year or more, for very likely it had been so handicapped from birth. After making the accompanying sketch, (fig. 47) the bird was banded and released.
Emerson A. Stoner
Benicia, California, May 28, 1933)
