348 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PASSEHES— OSCINES. 
197. C. f. rhodocol'pus. (Gr. pohov, rhodon, the rose; koKitos, kolpos, the breast.) Rose- 
breasted Finch. This alleged variety resembles the last; crimson tints more diffuse. 
Pacific coast region of California and southward. 
66. LOXaA. (Gr. Xo^os, loxos, crooked.) Cross-bills. Bill metagnathous; both mandibles 
falcate, deflected to opposite sides, their points crossed (unique among birds). Upper mandible 
stout and broad at base, rapidly narrowing to the elongate, decurved, laterally deflected and 
overhanging tip, its sides nearly flat, culminal ridge well marked and very convex throughout ; 
its base beset with a ruff of antrorse plumules concealing nostrils and nasal fossae. Lower man- 
dible with gonys very long, occupying nearly all the exposed part of the bill, convex through- 
out, the end of the mandible prolonged, curved upward and deflected to one side. Commissural 
line of either mandible curved in the opposite direction from its fellow. Mouth very narrow 
anteriorly, ample at base; tongue horny and concave at end; oesophagus with a large special 
crop, bulging to the right side. Wings long, pointed by tips of the first three primaries, rest 
rapidly graduated. Tail very short, only about f as long as the wing, emarginate and divari- 
cate, covered nearly to the forking by the coverts both above and below. Feet small ; tarsus 
shorter than middle toe without claw ; covered with 3 or 4 large overlapping plates, and smaller 
ones above and below ; the postero-lateral plates much broken up below. Lateral toes of sub- 
equal lengths, tips of their claws foiling opposite base of middle claw. Hind claw about equal 
to its digit, longer ; stouter, and more curved 
than the middle one. Form stout, thick- 
set ; neck short ; head broad and flattened 
on top. Plumage soft and blended. Sexes 
dissimilar in color. ^ red, 9 brown with 
olive or yellowish tinge. There are several 
species of these singular finches, — finches 
in which not only the horny envelope of the 
beak, but the bony framework, and to some 
extent the ligaments and muscles acting 
upon it, are unsymmetrical. The struct- 
ures concerned in what would appear to a 
fool to be a deformity constitute a handy 
tool for cracking nuts of some kinds and 
Fig. 212. — Wliite-winged Crossbill, reduced. 
Audubon.) 
shelling out their kernels; it acts like a 
198. 
(After 
pair of cutting pliers, — pincers and scissors 
in one. Our two species inhabit the northern parts of America, coming southward in flocks in 
the fall ; but they are also resident in northern and mountainous parts of the U. S., where they 
sometimes breed in winter. They are irregularly migratory according to exigencies of weather 
and food-supply ; are eminently gregarious, and feed principally upon pine seeds, which they 
skilfully husk out of the cones with their curious bills. 
Analysis of Species. 
Wings -with two wbite bars. rosy -red; $ brownish-olive, streaked and spotted with dusky, the rump 
saffron-yellow leucoptera 
Wings without bars, cf bricky-red. $ as before, without wing-bars. 
Bill small, about § of an inch long americana 
Bill large, J-| of an inch long mexicana 
Ij. leucop'tera. (Gr. XeuKo's, leuJcos, white ; rrrepov, x^teron, wing. Fig. 212.) White-winged 
Cross-bill. Adult $ : Rosy-red, sometimes carmined or even crimsoned, obscured on middle 
of back, paling on lower belly and crissum, latter whitish with dusky centres of the feathers. 
Scapulars black, this color sometimes meeting across lower back. Wing- and tail-feathers 
black, with slight white or rosy edgings ; inner secondaries and greater and middle coverts 
tipped with white, forming two cross-bars, sometimes confluent in one large patch. Rather 
198 
199 
200 
