THE RED CROSSBILL. 291 



The elongated, compressed, falcate-curved, and overlapping mandibles readily 

 characterize this genus among birds. 



The United-States species of Curvirostra are readily distinguished by the pres- 

 ence of white bands on the wing in Leucqptera and their absence in Americana. 



CURVIROSTRA AMERICANA. Wilson. 

 The Red Crossbill. 



Curvirostra Americana, Wilson. Am. Orn., IV. (1811) 44. 

 Loxia curvirostra. Aud. Biog., II. (1834) 559; V. 511. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Male dull-red ; darkest across the back ; wings and tail dark blackish-brown. 



Female dull greenish-olive above, each feather Avith a dusky centre ; rump and 

 crown bright greenish-yellow ; beneath grayish ; tinged, especially on the sides of 

 the body, with greenish-yellow; young entirely brown; paler berieath. 



The immature and young birds exhibit all imaginable combinations of the colors 

 of the male and female. They all agree in the entire absence of white bands on 

 the wings. 



Male about six inches ; wing, three and thirty one-hundredths inches ; tail, two 

 and twenty-five one-hundredths inches. 



This bird is very irregularly distributed in New Eng- 

 land, usually as a winter visitor. Sometimes it is quite 

 rare at that season in all sections ; and occasionally it 

 is very abundant. It also occurs here during the sum- 

 mer, breeding regularly in the pine and hemlock forests of 

 the northern sections. Wilson says of the habits of this 

 bird, 



" 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 dex- 

 terity with which he detaches the seeds of the pine-tree from the 

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

 fess, 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. 



