76 BIRDS. PASSERES. Loxia- 



79. L. curvirostra. Crossbill. — Bill as long as the middle 

 toe. Wings destitute of white bands. 



Loxia, Will. Orn. 181. Sibb- Scot. 10. Linn. Syst. i. 209. Penn. Brit- 



Zool. i. 319. Temm. Orn. i. 328 — E, Shill Apple ; IF, Gylfingroes 



Summer visitant. 

 Length 6|, breadth 1 1 h inches ; weight 1 \ ounces. Bill dark horn colour ; 

 the tongue cartilaginous, concave, and broad before. Legs and claws dusky ; 

 soles tubercular ; claws regularly curved, with sharp margins. Irides dusky. 

 Wings dusky, the outer margins of the feathers pale. The first and tliird 

 quills equal, the second, the longest ; the second, third, and fourth, slightly 

 abbreviated on the outer web. Tail dusky, forked, of 12 feathers, obliquely 

 truncated outwards at the extremity. The plumage at the vent inclines to 

 white ; on the rest of the body, except the wings and tail, it is of a reddish 

 orange, changing witli age into yellow and cinereous. The plumage of the 

 female is dull, cinereous, mixed with green. Breeds, early in the spring, in 

 the north of Europe in the pine forests, in the clefts of branches. Eggs 4 or 

 5, greenish-grey, with a circle of brown spots and rays at the larger end. 

 Young like the "female. Food consists of the seeds of fir-apples, which it readi- 

 ly reaches by means of its singular bill. — In a cage its motions resemble those 

 of a parrot. It is not known to breed here, but visits us in June, and con- 

 tinues throughout the summer. A male and female were sent us in Decem- 

 ber 1822 by the Ilev. Alexander Esphne, Schoolmaster of Monymeal. In 

 both examples the lower jaw crossed the left side of the upper. The muscles 

 on the right side for closing the lower jaw were much lai-ger than those on 

 the left, — a singular example of compensation for the loss of power, occa- 

 sioned by the oblique position and motion of the lower jaw. 



As stragglers connected with this genus the two following species merit 

 some notice. 



(1.) L. Pytiopsittacus. Parrot Crossbill. — This species is supposed to be re- 

 ferred to by Pennant in his Brit. Zool. i. 319., " We received a male and fe- 

 male out of Shropshire, Avhich were superior in size to the former ; the bill 

 remarkably thick and short, more curvated than that of the common kind, 

 and the ends more blunt." A Scottish example of tliis species was sent from 

 Ross-shire to INIr D. Ross, gunmaker, Edinburgh, and is recorded, on the 

 authority of Sir AVilliam Jarchne, by ]Mr Selby, m his valuable " Illustrations 

 of British Ornithology," i. p. 254. According to Temminck, Orn. L 325., the 

 bill is shorter than tlie middle-toe, and seven lines broad at the base. This 

 species is common to Europe and North America, and may be expected to oc- 

 cur in this country occasionally. 



(2.) Ij.falciroslra. White-winged Crossbill — Accorduig to j\Ir Templeton, 

 a female of this species " was shot within two miles of Belfast, in the month 

 of January 1802," Lin. Trans, vii. 309. It is a native of North America, 

 and may readily be distinguished by its inferior size, and by two white bands 

 across the wings. 



Gen. XXXVIII. CORYTHUS. Hawfinch— Bill inflat- 

 ed. Upper mandible bent over the under. 



80. C. Emicleator. Common Hawfinch. — Colour reddish ; 

 the wings and tail black. 



Loxia en. Linn. Syst. i. 209 Pine Gross-Beak, Penn. Brit. Zool. i. 317- 



— Pvrrhula en.' Temm. Orn. i. 333. — A summer visitant of Scotland. 



