AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 



37 



the latter most predominant near the rump ; wings and tail, 

 dusky ; the latter is forked, and consists of twelve feathers 

 edged with white ; the primaries are very slightly tipt and 

 edged with white, the secondaries more so ; the greater and 

 lesser coverts are also tipt with white, forming the bars across 

 the wings ; thighs, cinereous ; legs and feet, black ; hind claw, 

 considerably hooked, and longer than the rest. The female is 

 less bright in her plumage above ; and her under parts incline 

 more to an ash colour ; the spot on her crown is of a golden crim- 

 son, or reddish saffron colour. One male specimen was consi- 

 derably larger than the rest ; it measured five inches and three 

 quarters in length, and nine inches and a quarter in extent ; the 

 breast and rump were tawny ; its claws were uncommonly long, 

 the hind one measured nearly three-eighths of an inch ; and the 

 spot on the crown was of a darker hue than that of the rest. 



" The call of this bird exactly resembles that of the Fringilla 

 irisiis, or common yellow bird of Pennsylvania. The redpolls 

 linger in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia until about the 

 middle of April ; but whither they retire for the business of 

 incubation, we cannot determine. In common with almost 

 all our finches, the redpolls become very fat, and are then 

 accounted delicious eating. During the last winter, many 

 hundreds of them were exposed to sale in the Philadelphia 

 market, and were readily purchased by those epicures, whose 

 love of variety permits no delicacy to escape them."] 



AMEPtlCAN CKOSSJBILL. (Curvirostra Americana.) 



PLATE XXXI.— Fig. 1. male ; Fig. 2. female. 



Peale's Museum, No. 5640. 



LOXIA CUEVIROSTRA?—Bonafakte* 



Loxia curvirostra, Bonap. Synop. p. 117. 



On first glancing at the bill of this extraordinary bird, one is 

 apt to pronounce it deformed and monstrous ; but on atten- 



* Brisson first limited the crossbills to a genus, and proposed for them 

 the title Loxia, which has been adopted by most ornithologists. Cruci- 



