354 COCCOTHRAUSTES. GROSBEAK. 



placed behind the bill, and concealed by the reflected feathers. 

 Eyes of moderate size ; eyelids feathered, their edges bare and 

 crenate. External aperture of ears large, oval. 



Head large and broad, the forehead flattened ; neck shqrt and 

 thick ; body ovate, of nearly equal breadth and depth. Legs 

 short, tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with seven scutella, 

 posteriorly with a long plate, forming a sharp edge, and inferior 

 rugse. Toes slender, compressed, covered above with a few^ large 

 scutella, narrow and granulate beneath ; the second and fourth 

 nearly equal, the first a little shorter, the third much longer, 

 and united to the fourth as far as the second joint of the latter. 

 Claws rather long, arched, deep, much compressed, laterally 

 grooved, acute. 



Plumage blended, soft, rather glossy, the feathers ovate and 

 rounded, with a very slender plumule of a few long barbs, 

 those at the base of the bill with very short bristle-tips. Wing 

 broad, semicordate, of moderate length, primary quills ten, 

 secondary seven ; the three outer quills nearly equal, the first 

 being very little shorter than the second, which is longest. 

 Tail short, a little emarginate, of tw^elve feathers, the lateral 

 slightly bent outwards. 



The genus Coccothraustes is composed of a few species be- 

 longing to both continents, remarkable for the extraordinary 

 thickness of their conical bill, and the great strength of their 

 lower mandible, of which the crura are extremely thick. This 

 thickness of the bill renders necessary a large size of head, and 

 a thick neck, which give to these birds a clumsy appearance, 

 their body and limbs seeming disproportionately small. One 

 of the most remarkable instances of false reasoning, and of the 

 perversion of observation by preconceived theoretical notions, is 

 presented by Mr. Swainson's remarks on this genus in the 

 Fauna B or eali- Americana^ Vol. II, p. 270. " The bill, al- 

 though particularly large, betrays a decided weakness of struc- 

 ture, by the under mandible being much narrower and smaller 

 than the upper ; while in the sub-genus Guiraca both mandi- 

 bles are of equal thickness. This inequality is one of the most 

 striking characters of the Tenuirostres^ and of nearly all groups 

 and types which represent that tribe. Of this the Musopliagidce^ 



