Common Crossbill. 209 



90. COMMON CROSSBILL (Loxid curvirostra). 



Very eccentric in the periods of its visits here, no less than in 

 the formation of its beak, is this truly singular bird. It is a 

 denizen of northern latitudes, and though an interval of many 

 years frequently elapses between its visits, it will occasionally 

 arrive here in considerable numbers, when it frequents larch and 

 fir plantations. And it is in extracting the seeds from the fir-cones 

 that its remarkable beak (which at first sight appears a de- 

 formity) is so useful ; this is of great strength, as are also the 

 muscles of the head and neck, enabling it to work the mandibles 

 laterally with extraordinary power (this being the only British 

 bird which exhibits any lateral motion of the mandibles) : these 

 are both curved, and at the points overlap one another con- 

 siderably ; and when the bird holds a fir-cone in its foot, after 

 the manner of the parrots, and 'opening its bill so far as to 

 bring the points together, slips it in this position under the hard 

 scales of the cone, the crossing points force out the scale, and the 

 seed which lies below it is easily secured.'* An old writer of 

 Queen Elizabeth's time quoted by Yarrell says of it : ' It came 

 about harvest, a little bigger than a sparrow, which had bills 

 thwarted crosswise at the end, and with these it would cut an 

 apple in two at one snap, eating onely the kernel; and they 

 made a great spoil among the apples.' Hence it gained the 

 name of 'Shell-apple' in some localities. The scientific word 

 Loxia is from the Greek >.&go?, 'awry/ or 'crosswise,' which is 

 applicable enough. When first hatched, and even while the 

 young bird remains in the nest, there is no crossing of the beak 

 to be discerned ; both mandibles being perfectly straight, and 

 only assuming the crossed position when the bird ceases to be 

 immature. In Sweden it is called Mindre-Kors Ndbb, or 'Lesser 

 Crossbill,' to distinguish it from its supposed larger relative, the 

 ' Parrot Crossbill,' which is called in Scandinavia Storre-Kors 

 Ndbb, 'Greater Crossbill'; but modern ornithologists do not 

 generally allow that these so-called species are distinct. In 



* Monthly Packet, ' Our Feathered Neighbours,' vol. xi., p. 274. 



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