432 LOXIA PYTIOPSITTACUS. 



slender bill. The same remark applies to the common Euro- 

 pean and Parrot Crossbills. The plumage of all is alike, their 

 wings and tail are exactly similar, their colours the same. The 

 bill is extremely strong in one, slender in another, and inter- 

 mediate in the third. In the American birds the point of the 

 lower mandible extends beyond the ridge of the upper ; in the 

 common European species, it very rarely extends beyond it, 

 frequently reaches its level, but more commonly falls short of 

 it ; and in the Parrot Crossbill it is short. The manners, 

 food, and other circumstances of all the species are similar. It 

 is therefore not inconsistent with reason to consider them 

 merely as races or varieties of a single species. On the other 

 hand, it may be said, may not species sometimes diifer merely 

 in size ? They may perhaps ; but in most cases in which 

 species intimately related have been confounded, differences 

 have been detected in the form and colour of the feathers. 



