56 



GENUS XX 

 LOXIA. 



Bill short and thick ; nostrils small and round ; 

 tongue truncated ; toes three before, one behind. 



1. CURVIROSTRA. Lin. 



CRUCIROSTRA. 1 CROSS-BILL, OR SHEL- 

 VULGARIS Shaw. > APPLE. 



C. corpore versicolore, remigibus rectricibusque fas- 

 ciSy oris exterioribus viridi olivaceis, caudafur- 

 cata. Shaw. 



The bill is brown and strong, both mandibles* 

 crossing at the points, hooked ; irides hazel ; the 

 upper parts are reddish orange ; the under paler, the 

 vent nearly white ; the wings short, brown ; the legs 

 black. 



The female is dull olive green where the male is 

 red. 



They vary much in plumage with the seasons. 



The female is said to build early in the year, and 

 to place her nest under the bare branches of the pine 



* Two bones which are not in quadrupeds, exist in the 

 jaws of birds. The first is interposed between the articula- 

 tions of the lower jaw and the os temporis with both of 

 which it produces a joint ; the other is joined to the first, 

 and their use appears to be to give some degree of motion 

 to the upper mandible. 



