LOXIA. 323 



Upper surface of the body dark brown, the feathers centred with blackish ; 

 rump bright rose colour ; wing coverts like the back, the lesser coverts 

 washed with reddish ; the median and greater series with reddish brown and 

 edged with pale brown ; primary coverts and quills dark brown, narrowly 

 edged with ashy brown ; upper tail coverts light brown ; forehead crimson ; 

 crown of the head like the back, the feathers with blackish centres ; lores 

 dusky, with crimson tips ; eyebrows crimson ; ear coverts dark brown, streaked 

 with blackish centres ; cheeks and feathers below the eye crimson, the feathers 

 with silvery white tips ; throat, foreneck and breast crimson, with silvery white 

 centres to the feathers ; abdomen earthy brown, centred with black; sides of 

 the breast and body, also the flanks, dark brown, with blackish centres to the 

 feathers ; under tail coverts rosy, with dark brown centres ; under wing coverts 

 ashy brown, washed with rosy and centred with black. Bill dark homy ; feet 

 dusky black ; irides brown. 



Length. 7^5 to 8 inches ; wing 4/5 to 4*75 ; tail 3"i. 



The female is fulvescent brown throughout, with the feathers mesially 

 streaked with black ; wing coverts and quills dark brown, with paler edges ; 

 eyebrow and feathers round the eye ochreous buff, streaked with black ; ear 

 coverts the same ; cheeks and under surface of the body ochreous buff ; from 

 the throat below, streaked and spotted with black. 



Hab. Himalayas, from Nepaul to Sikkim. 



Gen. Loxia. 'Lin. 



Bill somewhat lengthened, strong, and compressed towards the tip ; culmen 

 keeled and strongly hooked at the tip; both mandibles hooked, so that the tips 

 cross each other ; wings moderately long, 1st and 2nd quills subequal and 

 longest; tail short, forked. Jerdon says "the peculiar structure of the bill of 

 these finches enables them to extract the seeds from the hard woody cones of 

 the various pines, and the ease and rapidity -with which they do this is said 

 to be very wonderful. They nidificate high up on pine trees, making a nest 

 of twigs and grass lined with hair. 



853. Loxia CUrvirostra, Linn, Syst. Nat. i., p. 299; SharpeJ Cat. 

 B. Br. Mus. xii., p. 435. Loxia himalayana, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. 

 1844, p. 85 ; id., J. A. S. B. xiii. p. 952 ; id., P. Z. S. xxxv., p. 35 ; id., Ann. 

 and Mag. Nat. Hist. xvi. p. 206 ; Jerd., B. Ind. ii. p. 393, No. 734 ; Gould, 

 B. Asia, v., pi. 41 ; Httme, Sfr. F. 1879, p. Io ^- The HIMALAYAN CROSS-BILL. 



The greater part of the head and neck and the whole body beneath rich 

 roseate blood red, more or less tinged with dusky brown ; rest of the head, neck, 

 back, wings and tail ashy brown, smeared and edged with red. 



The female is brown above, the rump tinged with yellow ; pale yellowish 

 beneath, tinged on the breast and abdomen with olive yellow. 



Length. 575 to 6*5 inches ; wing 3-25 ; tail 2*3 ; bill at front 0-5. 



