23 THE BEAK. 



to the bone of the head by a peculiar membrane placed on each 

 side of it, enabling the bird to lift or depress it at pleasure. 

 The muscular power of this contrivance is very great, for the 

 truth of which all who have incautiously exposed their fingers* 

 to the bite even of a Paroquet will readily vouch. 



There is a bird sometimes found in this country, called the 



Head of Crossbill. 



Beaks of Parrots. 



Crossbill, from the singular construction of its beak, the 

 mandibles of which, instead of shutting together like those of 

 other birds, cross each other; at first sight this might be 

 supposed to be an accidental deformity, and that the poor bird 

 must have great difficulty in picking up its food. But this 

 is by no means the case, for as the bird lives upon the seeds 

 or kernels of the hard fir-cones of pine-trees, it would "never 

 be able to crack them, and must soon die of hunger, if not 

 furnished with a bill of more than ordinary strength and 

 peculiarity of construction; exactly, in short, like the bill 

 with which nature has provided it ; with this it can instantly, 

 and most dexterously, cut the hardest cones asunder. But as 

 Divine Providence guards against every possible difficulty that 

 might arise from any unusual conformation, so, in this case, it 

 has been found that the muscles for closing the lower mandible 

 were much larger and stronger on the side opposite to that 

 where the lower mandible crossed the upper one ; a highly 



