t!ilOSS-BILL- 
the season and the age. Edwards, who exa- 
mined a prodigious number, and sought to 
mark the limits of variation, paints the Male 
with a rose-colour, and the Female wnth a yel- 
lowish green : but, in both, the bill, the eyes, 
the thighs, and the legs, are precisely the same, 
•with regard to shape and colours. Gesncr tells 
us, that he kept one of these birds, which was 
blackish in September, and assumed a red co- 
lour in Odtober. He adds, that the parts 
where the red began to appear, were the under- 
side of the neck, the breast, and the belly ; 
that this red afterwards became vellow ; that 
winter, especially, is the season when these 
changes take place ; and that, at ditferent 
times, it is said, that they receive a red, yel- 
low^ green, and cinereous cast. We must not, 
therefore, witli our modern nomenclators, 
reckon as a separate species, or a particular 
variety, a Greenish Cross- Bill — the Loxia Py- 
rcnaica of Barrere, and ilie Loxia Rufescens 
of Biisson — found in the Pyrenees: since it 
occurs, equally, in other places ; and, in cer- 
tain so isons, it has in all countries that colour. 
Accv>rviing to Fiisch, who was perfectly ac* 
quaintcd with these birds, which are common 
in 
