710 APPENDIX. 



dibles being separable in a lateral direction three and a half 

 twelfths to either side. On the roof of the upper mandible 

 are two longitudinal flattened ridges. The tongue as in the 

 adult. 



The general colour of the plumage of the upper parts is dull 

 greyish-ochre, longitudinally streaked with dusky, the central 

 part of each feather being of the latter colour, which is more 

 decided on the back ; the rump with more yellow, the 

 cheeks and sides of the neck lighter. The lower parts are 

 white, the fore part of the breast tinged with yellow, and 

 the whole under surface streaked with greyish -brown in 

 linear-oblong lines. The quills and coverts are blackish- 

 brown, narrowly edged with pale yellowish-brown, as are 

 the tail-feathers. 



Mr Yarrell, in his beautifully illustrated and carefully com- 

 piled History of British Birds, describes a young Crossbill 

 which " was brought from Hampshire at the latter end of 

 March, and was obtained within a few miles of Winchester. 

 Its whole length is only five inches ; the feathers of the wings 

 and tail not yet completed ; the former measuring but three 

 inches from the carpal joint to the end, and the tail-feathers 

 only extending five-eighths of an inch beyond the ends of the 

 upper tail-coverts. This bird cannot have flown far from the 

 nest in which it was reared, and was probably hatched about 

 the beginning of March. In the colours of its plumage it very 

 closely resembles those on young birds of the year when ob- 

 tained in June, namely, the head, neck, and upper part of the 

 back, the rump, and all the under surface of the body, greyish- 

 white, streaked longitudinally with dusky brown ; the feathers 

 of the wings and tail dark brown, with narrow edges of pale 

 brown ; the beak, though rather long, has both its mandibles 

 perfectly straight, the lower one just shutting within the edges 

 of the upper, nor is there the slightest indication to which side 

 either mandible would hereafter be inclined." 



It thus appears, that until the Crossbill has used its beak in 

 extracting the seeds from between the scales of the cones of 

 pines and firs, so as, by the peculiar action which it employs 

 in so doing, to bend the tip of the upper mandible to one side, 



