536 GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 



are white?, and the young are hatched in June. Suited 

 to the sterile climates they inhabit, their fare, besides 

 the seeds of the pine, alpine plants, and berries, often 

 consists of the buds of the poplar, willow, and other north- 

 ern trees and shrubs ; so that they are generally secure of 

 the means of subsistence, as long as the snows are not 

 too overwhelming. The individuals, as yet seen in the 

 United States, are wholly young birds, which, it seems, 

 naturally seek out warmer climates than the adult and 

 more hardy individuals. 



The length of the Pine Bullfinch is about 9 inches or under. 

 Tail considerably forked. Legs black. Bill brownish horn-color. 



CROSSBILLS. (LoxTA. Briss.) 



In these birds the bill, is robust and convex, with the mandibles 

 crossing each other and compressed towards the points, which are 

 extended in the form of crescents. Nostrils basal, lateral, rounded, 

 hidden by the advancing hairs of the front. Tongue cartilaginous, 

 short, entire, and pointed. The tarsus nearly equal with the mid- 

 dle toe ; toes divided to the base ; hind nail largest, much curved. — 

 Wings moderate, 1st and 2d primaries longest. Tail notched. 



The female and young differ considerably from the adult male, and 

 from each other ; there is likewise a difference of plumage accord, 

 ing to age and season ; although they are believed to moult but once 

 a year. They inhabit the boreal and arctic regions, and possess 

 most of the manners of the Grosbeaks and Bullfinches. They live 

 principally in the forests of pine and fir ; feeding usually on the 

 seeds or nuts of that family of trees, their bills being singularly well 

 adapted for the opening of the pine cones ; they feed also on other 

 kinds of hard seeds of the trees and shrubs of cold and alpine re- 

 gions. In Europe they are observed to nest often in the depth of 

 winter, and still later in the cold and arctic regions whither they re- 

 tire at the approach of summer. Their migrations are irregular, and 

 influenced much by accidental circumstances ; sometimes they ap- 

 pear in great numbers, as if driven forth by the approach of famine. 

 They are active and not timorous ; and easily tamed. By the genus 

 Psittirostra, or Farrot-billed Grosbeak of New Holland, the Cross- 

 bills evidently approach the Parrots of the next order Zygodactyli. 



