174 



BRANCH VERTEBRATA. 



The Cross-bill, when matured, has its mandibles lap- 

 ping, though the young do not possess this peculiarity. 

 While this anomalous form does not unfit the bird for 

 eating insects and soft fruit, it peculiarly adapts it to 

 obtain food from the seed of pine and fir cones.* 



PIG. 298. 



FIG. 299. 



Cur vi ros' tra leu cop' te r<*. 



Cur vi ros' tra a mer \ ca' na. 



Cross-bill. (}.) 



Melos'jiiza melo'dla. Song- sparrow. 



The Finches f are distinguished by a short, conical 

 bill, usually notched. The Song-sparrows are our earliest 

 and latest musicians. Those nesting in the far north 

 pass the latitude of New England late in November, and 

 return, in early March ; always in full song, with notes 

 " louder, clearer, and more vibratory than those that come 



* These seeds are concealed beneath, hard scales. To secure them, the bird, 

 clinging to the slender twig with one foot, grasps the cone with the other ; then 

 inserting its bill between the scales, by drawing the lower mandible sideways, 

 pries them apart, when the tongue, which is furnished with a peculiar horny 

 scoop, darts into the opening, dislodges the seed and carries it to the mouth. 



t The necessity of examining not only a great number of specimens of the 

 same bird, but also those from different localities, is especially apparent in this 

 group. Each region of North America seems to possess a different variety. So 

 completely, however, do the forms of a series of hundreds of specimens from 

 different places, insensibly grade into one another, that eight species have been 

 united in one by recent authors, a fact commending itself persuasively to the 

 attention of young students of Nature. 



