336 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



the ligaments, and other parts, exhibit a corresponding and pro- 

 portionate distortion. 



By this contrivance the bird has the power of forcibly pressing 

 apart the firm leaflets of the cones of various pine trees, and by a 

 dexterous use of the tongue, whipping into its mouth the seeds 

 concealed in the deeper recesses. These seeds form the principal 

 food of the crossbills, though they, in a similar manner, obtain 

 seeds from the " cones " of the tulip-tree or poplar. Apples are 

 also split open in this manner, the birds being very fond of the 

 seeds of this fruit. I have, in Nebraska, seen these birds feed- 

 ing upon the seeds of the sunflower, in the winter time. 



In my drawing illustrating this chapter, I have shown a pair 

 of American crossbills (Loxia curvirostra minor), the male bird 

 being in the act of parting the horny leaflets of a pine cone. 

 While drawing this bird, I had a specimen before me that I shot 

 near Washington, D. C, a number of years ago, and it shows 

 several traces of albinism, the top of the head being nearly en- 

 tirely white. Crossbills are finches, but they are very curious 

 kinds of finches, having many habits not exhibited by other mem- 

 bers of the same family. Wilson used the word Curvirostra for 

 the genus containing these birds, but Gesner applied the term 

 Loxia (Greek, loxos oblique), and this appellation was continued 

 by Linne, and is now the term used, by the vast majority of or- 

 nithologists the world over. We have three species of them in 

 this country, viz.: the American crossbill, mentioned above; the 

 Mexican crossbill (L. c. stricklandi) , and the White-winged 

 crossbill (Loxia leucoptera). 



As a rule they are boreal birds, being confined to the northern 

 parts of the eastern United States, except the Mexican cross- 

 bill, which is said to be found in the mountains of Wyomiug and 

 Colorado, west to the Sierra Nevada, and south through New 

 Mexico and beyond our boundaries. In the winter-time the other 

 two species also come south, especially the American crossbill, 

 which has been taken occasionally in the southern states. The 

 type of the genus, or the Common crossbill, is found in the Old 

 World (Loxia curvirostra) , where three other forms of the genus 

 also occur — " two of them so closely resembling the common 

 bird that their specific validity has been often questioned. The 

 first of these, of large stature, the Parrot crossbill, L. pityopsit- 

 tacus, comes occasionally to Great Britain, presumably from 

 Scandinavia, where it is known to breed. The second, L. himalay- 



