PLANT-CUTTER. 153 



These birds build in high trees, well clothed with leaves, and in 

 unfrequented places; the eggs are white, spotted with red. M. 

 d'Azara says, the bird is seven inches long, and more than nine broad. 

 One only of this species seen in Paraguay. 



* * WITH THREE TOES. 



2— ABYSSINIAN PLANT-CUTTER— Pl. xcviii. 



Loxia tridactyla, hid. Orn. i. 397. 93. Gm.Lin. i. 866. Nat. Misc, pi. 725. 



Phytotome d'Abyssinie, Daud. ii. 366. pi. 28. 1. 



Hyreus Abyssihicus, Shaw's Zool. ix. 338. pi. 53. 



Le Guifso Balito, Buf. iii. 471. 



Three-toed Grosbeak, Gen. Syn. iii. 159. 



Abyssinian Plant-Cutter, Gen. Syn. Sup.'n. 213. pi. 133. 



SIZE of the Common Grosbeak ; length about six inches. Bill 

 stout, brown ; head and fore part of the neck red ; the rest of the 

 plumage black; about the shoulders brownish, tinged with green; 

 the greater wing coverts appearing as black scales, margined with 

 white, slightly tinged with olive; tail a trifle forked ; legs brown, 

 with only three toes, two before and one behind. 



This is the description of M. Daudin, from a drawing sent to him, 

 copied from a Nubian specimen ; it seems, however, to differ a little 

 from that described by Buffon, for his bird is said to be black, with 

 not only the head, and fore part of the neck of a beautiful red, but 

 that colour prolonged in a narrow band, quite to the vent; the wing 

 coverts brown, edged with white, and the quills edged with green. 

 Buffon took his description from Mr. Brace's drawings, done in 

 Abyssinia, where it is said to be a solitary species, living on the 

 kernels of almonds, the shells of which it easily breaks with the bill. 

 The name it is known by in its native place, is Guifso batito dimmo- 

 won jerck. 



VOL. VI. X 



