PARROT CROSSBILL. 



431 



rally in opposite directions, the lower, when the bill is closed, 

 ascending beyond the level of the ridge of the upper, which is 

 much longer. Compared with the bill of European birds, it is 

 slender, its outlines less curved, its sides more convex. The 

 legs are short and strong ; the tarsi very short, stout, compres- 

 sed, feathered a short way below the joint, covered anteriorly 

 w4th six large scutella, behind sharp-edged. The toes are pre- 

 cisely as in the European species, and their scutella six, eight, 

 eleven, and nine, as in it. The plumage is in all respects similar. 

 The wings long, with eighteen quills ; the primaries narrow 

 and rounded, the secondaries rather short and slightly emar- 

 ginate ; the second quill longest, the first scarcely a twelfth 

 shorter, the third slightly longer than the first. The tail also 

 is exactly similar. 



Length to end of tail 6 inches ; bill in depth at the base 4^ 

 twelfths, along the ridge of upper mandible 8^ twelfths, along 

 the edge of lower ^^ .; wing from flexure 3| ; tail 2/2 ; tarsus 7h 

 twelfths ; hind toe 4i twelfths, its claw j\ ; second toe 4^ 

 twelfths, its claw ^^^ ; third toe ^V^ i^^ claw -^^ ; fourth toe 4i 

 twelfths, its claw /g. 



Fig. 71. is an outline, half-sized, of the head of X. Pytiopsitta- 

 cus ; Figs. 72. and 73. of large specimens of L. europart ; Figs. 

 74. and 75. of smaller-billed individuals of the same species ; 

 and Fig. 76. of L. americana. 



Fig. 74. 



Fig. 75. 



Fig. 76. 



The differences between the American Crossbill and the 

 common European species are therefore merely in degree, 

 the former being much smaller, with a proportionally more 



