156 



CRIMSON NUT-CRACKER. 



Pirenestes sanguineus, SWAINS. 

 PLATE IX. 



Head, neck, breast, and upper tail-feathers, glossy crimson ; 

 body, wings, and tail, dark brown. 



Loxia ostrina, Vieillot, Ois. Chant. PI. 48. 



IT may safely be affirmed that this extraordinary 

 bird has the thickest [and most massive bill in the 

 feathered creation. Both mandibles, indeed, are of 

 an enormous size ; but contrary to what we find in 

 the generality of birds, the under one is even still 

 more powerful than the upper. What are the nuts 

 or seeds, the breaking of which requires such an 

 amazing strength of bill, is perfectly unknown ; but 

 they must be of a stone-like hardness. This is 

 proved by another circumstance, which further 

 shews that, however uncommon, this amazing de- 

 velopement is not in the least degree superfluous. 

 In the two specimens we have examined, one in the 

 Paris museum, the other in our own, the edges of 

 the upper mandible are chipped and broken, obvi- 

 ously from the difficulty which the bird has expe- 

 rienced in breaking some nuts of unusual hardness, 

 and which it has not been able to accomplish without 



