124 CROSSBEAKS. 



In July, I saw se ,eral cuckoos skimming over a large 

 pond ; and found, after some observation, that they were 

 feeding on the lihellulce, or dragon-flies, some of which they 

 caijght as they settled on the weeds, and some as they were 

 on the wing. Not^vithstanding what Linnaeus says, I cannot 

 be induced to believe that they are birds of prey. 



This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard 

 of at Selborne. In the first place, considerable flocks of 

 cross-beaks (loxice curvirostrce,) have appeared this summer 

 in the pine groves belonging to this house ;* the water-ousel 



* The species of cross-bills are only three in number. One loxia curvi' 

 rostra, pays frequent visits, in flocks of from ten to eighty or a hundred in 

 number, during the winter. The loxia pittyopsittacus has only been once 

 recorded as a native of this country, from a specimen killed in Ross-shire, and 

 now in my possession ; it can, therefore, only be ranked as an occasional 

 visitant : it is a native of Germany and North America. The third species, 

 loxia falcirostra, also a native of North America, has once been shot witliia 

 two miles of Belfast, Ireland, — the only authenticated instance of its visiting 

 our coasts. In a late number of the Zoological Journal, Mr. Yarrel (whom 

 we have already had occasion to mention as a most persevering naturalist), has 

 supplied some very interesting facts regarding the formation and direction of 

 the bej)k of the common cross-bill, and which, we think, are here worthy of 

 notice : — " The beak of the cross-bill is altogether unique in its form ; the 

 mandibles do not lie upon each other, with their lateral edges in opposition, as 

 in other birds, but curve to the right and left, and always in opposite direc- 

 tions to each other. In some specimens, the upper mandibles curve down- 

 wards an-i to the left; the under portion turned upwards, and to the right 

 When holding the head of this bird in my fingers, I found I could bring tha 

 under mandible in « line underneath, and touching the point of the upper, but 

 not beyond it, towards the left side ; while, on its own side, the point passed 

 with ease to the distance of 3-8th of an inch. The upper mandible has a 

 limited degree of motion on the cranium, the superior maxillary and nasal 

 bones being united to the frontal by flexible bony laminae. 



*' The form as well as the magnitude of the processes of some of the bones 

 of the head are also ♦x^culiar to this bird. The pterygoid processes of the pala- 

 tine bones are considerably elongated downwards, to afford space for the 

 inseition of the large pterygoid muscles. The os omoideum on each side is 

 strongly articulated to the os quadratum, affording firm support to the 

 upper mandible. The jugal bone is united to the superior maxillary bone in 

 front — is firmly attached by its posterior extremity to the outer side of the 

 OS quadratum : when, therefore, the os quadratum is pulled upwards and 

 forwards by its own peculiar muscles, the jugal bone on each side, by its 

 pressure forwards, elevates the upper mandible. 



" The inferior projecting process of the os qtiadratum, to which the lower 

 jaw is articulated, in most other birds is somewhat linear from before back- 

 wards, and compressed at the sides, admitting vertical motion only upwards and 



