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Genus LOXIA. 



Loxia, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 299 (1766). 



Crucirostra apud Leach, Cat. Mamm. & B. Brit. Mus. p. 12 (1816). 



Curvirostra apud C. L. Brehm, Ornis, iii. p. 85 (1827). 



This genus, though allied to Pinicola and Carpodacus in habits and plumage, differs from all 

 allied genera in having the bill peculiarly formed, the upper and lower mandibles being crossed 

 towards the tip. The Crossbills inhabit the Palsearctic and Nearctic Regions, ranging south 

 into the northern portions of the Ethiopian and Neotropical Regions, being almost everywhere 

 sporadic wanderers rather than regular migrants. Four species inhabit the Western Palsearctic 

 Region, one of which, however, is only a straggler from North America. They are inhabitants 

 of groves, forests, and gardens, being most frequently met with in conifer-woods, where they 

 find their favourite food, the seeds of the pine and fir. They are habitually tame and confiding, 

 and, as a rule, unsuspicious to a degree — unless subjected to persecution, when they become 

 more wary. They frequent the tops of trees, and, except in the spring of the year, when they 

 utter a warbling note, are comparatively silent, merely uttering a low call-note to each other 

 now and again. They are usually seen in flocks or in family parties, and not unfrequently in 

 very large companies. They are active and restless, climbing about amongst the branches like 

 parrots, and have a strong flight. They breed very early in the season, placing their nest, which 

 is cup-shaped, built of twigs and moss lined with roots, moss, and wool, on a conifer tree, and 

 deposit eggs closely resembling those of the Greenfinch, but rather larger. Their song consists 

 of a pleasant warble ; and Loxia bifasciata is said to have a sweet and varied song. They feed 

 chiefly on seeds, fruits, and berries, but also, to some extent, on insects. 



Loxia curvirostra, the type of the genus, has the bill hard, strong, rather higher than long 

 at the base, compressed towards the end, with the tip laterally deflected and curved in opposite 

 directions, the lower mandible crossing the upper one ; nostrils round, basal, concealed by 

 recurved bristly feathers ; wings rather long, pointed, the first quill attenuate, obscure, the next 

 three nearly equal, the second being the longest ; tail short, forked ; legs strong and stout, the 

 tarsus covered in front with four larger and three inferior scutella? ; claws stout, arched laterally, 

 grooved, acute. 



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