208 FRHSTGILLID^. 



Habits, $c. Little is recorded of the habits of this bird. Hodgson 

 says it is shy, adhering to the forests. 



Genus LOXIA, Linn., 1766. 



The genus Loccia contains one Indian species of Finch which 

 may be recognized at a glance by the peculiar structure of the bill, 

 in which the tips of the mandibles cross each other. The plumage 

 of the male is red and that of the female greenish. In Loxia the 

 wing is very Jong, reaching to a considerable distance beyond the 

 middle of the tail. 



Fig. 56. Head of L. himalayana, 



The Crossbills feed chiefly on seeds from the cones of various 

 pine-trees, for the extraction of which their bill is specially 

 adapted. 



750. Loxia himalayana. The Himalayan Crossbill. 



Loxia himalayana, Hodgs., Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 85 (1844); Horsf. fy 

 M. Cat. ii, p. 453 ; Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 393 ; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. 

 xxxvii, pt. ii, p. 60 ; Hume, Cat. no. 734. 



Loxia himalayensis, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. xiii, p. 952 (1844) ; Blyth, 

 Cat. p. 123. 



Loxia curvirostra, Linn., Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii, p. 435 (part.). 



Coloration. Male. Forehead, crown, nape, and hind neck red, 

 the rump brighter red ; back and scapulars brown, the feathers 

 broadly fringed with red ; wing-coverts brown, margined with rufous- 

 brown ; primary-coverts, winglet, and quills blackish with very 

 narrow rufous margins ; upper tail-coverts and tail dark brown 

 margined with rufous ; sides of the head dark brown, more or less 

 mixed with red ; lower plumage red ; under tail-coverts brown, 

 broadly edged with whitish; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 ashy brown washed with rufous. 



Female. Upper plumage brown, each feather edged with olive- 

 yellow; the rump purer yellow ; wings and tail dark brown, mar- 

 gined narrowly with olive-yellow : chin, throat, and sides of the head 

 and neck ashy, more or less mottled and washed with dull yellow ; 

 abdomen ashy ; remainder of lower plumage dull yellow. 



Young birds are ashy brown tinged with yellow and densely 

 streaked all over with dark brown. 



Bill and feet brown ; iris dark hazel. 



Length about 5'5 : tail 2-2; wing 3'4; tarsus '65; bill from 

 gape *75. 



The Crossbills of the Himalayas form a very small race which I 

 think it is advisable to keep distinct. There is a very marked 



