114 CROSSBILL 



another obliquely,^ whence the appellation Loxia (ko^os, obliquus), 

 conferred by Gesner on the group and continued by Linnseus. At 

 first sight this singular structui'e appears so like a deformity that 

 ■writers have not been wanting to account it such,^ ignorant of its 

 being a piece of mechanism most beautifully adapted to the habits 

 of the bird, enabling it to extract with the greatest ease, from 

 fir-cones or fleshy fruits, the seeds which form its usual and almost 

 invariable food. Its mode of using this unique instrument seems 

 to have been first described by Townson (Tracts on Nat. Hist. 

 p. 116, London : 1799), but only partially, and it was YarreU who, 

 in 1829 (Zool. Journ. iv. pp. 459-465, pi. xiv. figs. 1-7), explained 

 fully the means whereby the jaws and the muscles which direct 

 their movements become so eff"ective in riving asunder cones or 

 apples, while at the proper moment the scoop-like tongue is 

 instantaneously thrust out and ^vithdrawn, convejning the hitherto 

 protected seed to the bird's mouth. Without going into details it 

 may be observed that in the Crossbills the articulation of the 

 mandible to the quadrate-bone is such as to allow of a very 

 considerable amount of lateral play, and, by a particular arrange- 

 ment of the muscles which move the former, it comes to pass that 

 so soon as the bird opens its mouth the point of the mandible is 

 brought immediately opposite to that of the maxilla (which itself is 

 movable vertically) instead of crossing or overlapping it — the usual 

 position when the mouth is closed. The two points thus meeting, the 

 bill is inserted between the scales or into the pome, but on opening 

 the mouth still more widely, the lateral motion of the mandible is 

 once more brought to bear with great foi'ce to wi'ench aside the 

 portion of the fruit attacked, and then the action of the tongue 

 completes the operation, which is so rapidly performed as to defy 

 scrutiny, except on very close inspection. Fortunately the birds 

 soon become tame in confinement, and a little patience vrill enable 

 an attentive observer to satisfy himself as to the j)rocess, the result 

 of which at first seems almost as unaccountable as that of a clever 

 conjuring trick. 



^ As an accidental malformation, however, the peculiarity has been many 

 times observed in other groups of birds, and especially in the Crows {Corvidae,). 

 Such cases may be well compared to the monstrosity often seen in Rabbits and 

 other members of the Order Glires, wherein the incisor teeth grow to inordinate 

 length'. 



- The special animosity of De Buftbu on this point may perhaps be explained 

 by the existence of a mediaeval legend (of which, however, be it said, he takes 

 no notice), best known to English readers by Longfellow's pretty version of 

 Mosen's poem, to the effect that the bird acquired its peculiar conformation of 

 bill and coloration of plumage in recognition of the pity it bestowed on the 

 suffering Saviour at the cruciiixion. Schwenckfeld in 1603 {Theriotropheicm 

 SilesiiB, pp. 253, 254) gave the fable in the Latin verses of Johannes Major, which 

 have been reprinted in Notes aiid Queries (ser. 5, vii. p. 505). 



