AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 



41 



north to breed. It is added by Pennant, that " they return 

 at the first setting in of frost." 



Hitherto this bird has, as usual, been considered a mere 

 variety of the European species ; though differing from it in 

 several respects, and being nearly one-third less, and although 

 the singular conformation of the bill of these birds, and their 

 peculiarity of manners, are strikingly different from those of 

 the grosbeaks, yet many, disregarding these plain and obvious 

 discriminations, still continue to consider them as belonging 

 to the genus Loxia ; as if the particular structure of the bill 

 should, in all cases but this, be the criterion by which to 

 judge of a species ; or perhaps, conceiving themselves the 

 wiser of the two, they have thought proper to associate 

 together what Nature has, in the most pointed manner, 

 placed apart. 



In separating these birds, therefore, from the grosbeaks, 

 and classing them as a family by themselves, substituting the 

 specific for the generic appellation, I have only followed the 

 steps and dictates of that great Original, whose arrangements 

 ought never to be disregarded by any who would faithfully 

 copy her. 



The crossbills are subject to considerable changes of colour; 

 the young males of the present species being, during the first 

 season, olive yellow, mixed with ash ; then bright greenish 

 yellow, intermixed with spots of dusky olive, all of which 

 yellow plumage becomes, in the second year, of a light red, 

 having the edges of the tail inclining to yellow. When con- 

 fined in a cage, they usually lose the red colour at the first 

 moulting, that tint changing to a brownish yellow, which 

 remains permanent. The same circumstance happens to the 

 purple finch and pine grosbeak, both of which, when in con- 

 finement, exchange their brilliant crimson for a motley garb 

 of light brownish yellow ; as I have had frequent opportunities 

 of observing. 



The male of this species, when in perfect plumage, is five 

 inches and three quarters long, and nine inches in extent ; 



