202 FRINGILLIDiE. 



changing back to dull brown, as dark as, or even darker than 

 their early plumage. This is probably the effect of un- 

 natural conditions such as particular food, and the want of 

 air and light — all of which must exercise a debilitating in- 

 fluence on them as on other birds. 



Young females, after their first striated dress, acquire a 

 greenish-yellow tint on the crown, and the lower parts of the 

 body, mixed with greyish-brown ; the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts of primrose-yellow, tinged with green ; wings, tail 

 and legs, as in the male. The lower figure of the group is 

 from a female. 



The Crossbill varies a little in size, measuring from six 

 inches and a quarter to seven inches in length ; the average 

 extent of the wings from tip to tip, is about eleven inches ; 

 from the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary three 

 inches and three-quarters ; the third a very little shorter 

 than the second ; the fourth a little shorter than the third, 

 and the fifth feather one quarter of an inch shorter than the 

 fourth. 



Besides specimens in my own collection, killed in July, 

 September, November and January ; others selected with 

 reference to particular states of plumage, and various oppor- 

 tunities of examining examples kept in confinement, I have 

 been favoured with many more from Mr. W. Wells of Red- 

 leaf, Mr. W. Browne of Cheam, Mr. Joseph Clarke of 

 Saffron- Walden and Mr. H. Doubleday.* 



The peculiar form of the bill in this bird, altogether unique 

 among animals,t had long excited the attention of zoologists, 

 and De Buffon, in 1775, especially distinguished himself by 



* The series of specimens at the Author's disposal was doubtless far larger 

 than ornithologists of the time were accustomed to consult, but it may be remarked 

 that the present state of science requires a much more extended comparison to 

 obtain satisfactory results. Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser enumerate one hundred 

 examples (from various localities) as having been examined by them, and the 

 Editor must have handled nearly as many. 



f As an occasional monstrosity, the result of overgrowth of the horny casing 

 of the bill, the i^eculiarity has, however, been many times observed in other 

 groups of birds and especially among the Crows. Such cases may well be com- 

 pared to the malformation often seen in mammals of the order Glircs, wherein 

 the incisors often grow to inordinate length. 



Jl 



