53 AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 



and were not afterwards so beautiful as they were at first. One of 

 them, he says, was colored very much like the Green-finch [Loxia 

 CJiloris). The Purple-finch, though much smaller, has the rump, head, 

 back and breast nearly of the same color as the Pine Grosbeak, feeds 

 in the same manner, on the same food, and is also subject to like changes 

 of color. 



Since writint' the above I have kept one of these Pine Grosbeaks, a 

 male, for more than half a year. In the month of August those parts 

 of the plumage which were red became of a greenish yellow, and con- 

 tinue so still. In May and June its song, though not so loud as some 

 birds of its size, was extremely clear, mellow and sweet. It would 

 warble out this for a whole morning together, and acquired several of 

 the notes of a Red-bird {L. cardinalis), that hung near it. It is exceed- 

 ingly tame and familiar, and when it wants food or water utters a con- 

 tinual melancholy and anxious note. It was caught in winter near the 

 North river, thirty or forty miles above New York. 



Genus XXXV. CURVIROSTRA. CROSSBILL. 



Species L C. AMERICANA* . 



AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 



[Plate XXXI. Fig. 1, Male —Fig. 2, Female.t] 



On first glancing at the bill of this extraordinary bird one is apt to 

 pronounce it deformed and monstrous ; but on attentively observing the 

 use to which it is applied by the owner, and the dexterity with which he 

 detaches the seeds of the pine tree from the cone, and from the husks 

 that enclose them, we are obliged to confess on this as on many other 

 occasions where we have judged too hastily of the operations of nature, 

 that no other conformation could have been so excellently adapted to 

 the purpose ; and that its deviation from the common form, instead of 

 being a defect or monstrosity, as the celebrated French naturalist 

 insinuates, is a striking proof of the wisdom and kind superintending 

 care of the great Creator. 



This species is a regular inhabitant of almost all our pine forests 

 situated north of 40°, from the beginning of September to the middle 

 of April. It is not improbable that some of them remain during sum- 



• ThiH is not a new species, as supposed by Wilson, but the Loxia curvirostra, 

 Linn. E.l. 10, p. 171. 

 t This is an adult male ; fip. 1 is a young bird. 



