GENUS 35. CURVIROSTHA. CROSSBILL. 

 SPECIES 1. C. AMERICANA* 



AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 



[Plate XXXI. Fig. 1, Male. Fig. 2, Female A] 



PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 5640. 



ON first glancing at the bill of this extraordinary bird one is 

 apt to pronounce it deformed and monstrous; but on attentively 

 observing the use to which it is applied by the owner, and the 

 dexterity with which he detaches the seeds of the pine tree from 

 the cone, and from the husks that enclose them, we are obliged to 

 confess on this as on many other occasions where we have judged 

 too hastily of the operations of nature, that no other conformation 

 could have been so excellently adapted to the purpose; and that 

 its deviation from the common form, instead of being a defect or 

 monstrosity, as the celebrated French naturalist insinuates, is a 

 striking proof of the wisdom and kind superintending care of the 

 great Creator. 



This species is a regular inhabitant of almost all our pine fo- 

 rests situated north of 40, from the beginning of September to 

 the middle of April. It is not improbable that some of them re- 

 main during summer within the territory of the United States 

 to breed. Their numbers must, however, be comparatively few, 

 as I have never yet met with any of them in summer; though 

 I lately took a journey to the Great Pine swamp beyond Pocano 

 mountain, in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, in the month 

 of May, expressly for that purpose; and ransacked for six or seven 



* This is not a new species, as supposed by Wilson, but the Loxia curviroa- 

 Ira, LIKN. Ed. 10, p. 171. 



f This is an adult male; fig 1 is a young bird. 



