The beak of a shoveller-duck (Spatula clypeata) is a more beautiful and complex structure than the mouth of a whale.

The upper mandible is furnished on each side (in the specimen examined by me) with a row or comb formed of 188 thin, elastic lamellae, obliquely bevelled so as to be pointed, and placed transversely to the longer axis of the mouth.

They arise from the palate, and are attached by flexible membrane to the sides of the mandible.