THE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 



(Loxia leucoptera.} 



The Crossbills, together with the The. Crossbills are even parrot-like in 

 finches, the sparrows, the grosbeaks, the captivity. Dr. Ridgway, in the "Orni- 

 redpolls, the goldfinches, the towhees, the thology of Illinois," writes as follows re- 

 cardinals, the longspurs, and the bunt- garding the habits of a pair : "They were 

 ings, belongto that large family of perch- very tame, and were exceedingly inter- 

 ing birds called the Fringillidae, from the esting little pets. Their movements in the 

 Latin word Fringilla, meaning a finch. cage were like those of caged parrots in 



Mr. Chapman tells us, in his "Birds every respect, except that they were far 



of Eastern North America," that "this, more easy and rapid. They clung to the 



the largest family of birds, contains some sides and upper wires of the cage with 



five hundred and fifty species, which are their feet, hung down from them, and 

 represented in all parts of the world, ex- . seemed to enjoy the practice of walking 



cept the Australian region. Its members with their head downward. They were 



present a wide diversity of form and habit, in full song, and both the male and fe- 



but generally agree in possessing stout, male were quite good singers. Their 



conical bills, which are admirably adapt- songs were irregular and varied, but 



ed to crush seeds. They are thus chief sweet and musical. They ate almost ev- 



among seed-eaters, and for this reason ery kind of food, but were especially eager 



are not so migratory as insect-eating for slices of raw apple. Although while 



species." Many of the birds most they lived they were continually bickering 



highly prized for the cage and as song- over their food, yet when the female was 



sters are representatives of this family and accidentally choked by a bit of egg shell 



many of the species are greatly admired her mate was inconsolable, ceased to sing, 



for their beautiful coloring. The White- refused his food, and died of grief in a 



Winged Crossbill is a native of the north- very few days." 



ern part of North America, migrating Their peculiar bills are especially fitted 

 southward into the United States during for obtaining their food, which consists to 

 the winter months. Its technical name, a great extent of the seeds of cone-bear- 

 Loxia leucoptera, is most appropriate and ing trees, such as the pine, the hemlock 

 descriptive. The generic name Loxia and the spruce. The ornithologist Wil- 

 is derived from the Greek loxos, meaning son says : "On first glancing at the bill 

 crosswise or slanting, and the specific of this extraordinary bird one is apt to 

 name leucoptera is from two Greek pronounce it deformed and monstrous ; 

 works, meaning white and wing, and has but, on attentively observing the use to 

 reference to the white tips of the feathers which it is applied by the owner and the 

 of the wings. The common name, Cross- dexterity with which he detaches the 

 bill, or, as the bird is sometimes called, seeds of the pine-tree from the cone and 

 Crossbeak, describes the peculiar struc- from the husks that inclose them, we are 

 ture of the bill which marks them as per- obliged to confess on this, as on many 

 haps the most peculiar of our song birds, other occasions where we have judged 

 The bill is quite deeply cut at the base and too hastily of the operations of nature, 

 compressed near the tips of the two parts, that no other conformation could have 

 which are quite abruptly bent, one up- been so excellently adapted to the pur- 

 ward and the other downward, so that pose ; and that its deviation from the com- 

 the points cross at an angle of about forty- mon form, instead of being a defect or 

 five degrees. This characteristic gives monstrosity as the celebrated French nat- 

 this bird a parrot-like appearance. The uralist insinuates, is a striking proof of 

 similarity is heightened by the fact that the wisdom of the great Creator." 

 these hook-like bills are used by the birds As an accidental malformation this 

 to assist in climbing from branch to structure of the bill has been noted among 

 branch. other birds, and, it is said, with some fre- 



