430 LOXIA PYTIOPSITTACUS. 



wings and tail deep brown ; in short, precisely similar in 

 this respect to a fine specimen of the Common Crossbill be- 

 side it. 



Length to end of tail 8 inches ; wing from flexure 4/2 ; tail 

 2ig ; bill in height at the base 7i twelfths, in length 1, edge 

 of lower mandible \^ ; tarsus j% ; hind toe 5i twelfths, its 

 claw y\ '-> niiddle toe j%^ its claw j%. 



Mr. Selby has figured and described, in his well-known 

 Illustrations, a Avell-stufFed specimen, ^ procured by Sir Wil- 

 liam Jardine from Mr. D. Ross, gunmaker in Edinburgh, to 

 whom it had been sent from Ross-shire, along with several 

 others."' The bill is described as " very strong, five eighths of 

 an inch deep, shorter than the middle toe," &c. In the figure 

 it is seven twelfths deep at the base, and about eleven twelfths 

 long. This bird I admit to be of the species, on account of its 

 great size and the shortness of the tips of the mandibles :, but 

 after all, it seems to me scarcely doubtful that L. europaea and 

 L. Pytiopsittacus are the same bird. There is no account of 

 other specimens obtained in Britain existing in any collection 

 there ; and any thing else relative to the Parrot Crossbill, con- 

 sidered as British, is merely conjectural. 



Having embraced the opportunity of comparing our Cross- 

 bills with those of America, I may be permitted to say a few 

 words respecting the latter. Wilson first described as a species, 

 to which he gave the name of Curti7'ostra americana^ the bird 

 which Bonaparte afterwards pronounced identical with the 

 Common Crossbill of Europe. It will be seen, however, from 

 his description that it is greatly inferior in size, being only 5f 

 inches long, although the colours are similar to those of the 

 European species. As this species has not been minutely de- 

 scribed unless with reference to colour, I subjoin an account of 

 a stuffed male now before me. 



Bill about the length of the head, stout, its outlines arched 

 in a much less degree than in the European species, the tips 

 curved, much compressed, rather acute, a little deflected late- 



