[89] 
CROSS BILL. MALE. 
Loxia curvirostra. 
Le Bec-croise 
Sheld-apple, or Cross-bill. 
Lm. Syst. i. p. 299 , No. l. 
Bris. Orn. iii. p. 3 29. No. l 
Edzv. PI. 3 0 3. 
JBr.Zcol.i. U5. 
Lalh. Gen. Sj/n. ii. p. 10 6. 
Is represented the size of life ; and is found in all the evergreen forests of 
Russia, Siberia, in Scandinavia as high as Dronthiem, in Sweden, in 
Poland, in Germany, and Switzerland, and among the Alps and Pyre- 
nees ; inhabiting only the cold climates, or mountainous situations in tem- 
perate countries. It likewise is met with in the northern latitudes of North 
America, from Hudson’s Bay to Newfoundland, arriving at Severn river 
the latter end of May, but proceeding in a more northern direction, to 
breed in the pine forests. 
This bird is distinguishable from all others by the singularity of its 
bill, both mandibles of which are in a curve in opposite angles, crossing 
each other; the upper mandible being blackish, the under mandible gray. 
This bill, though hooked upwards and downwards, and bent in opposite 
directions, has, nevertheless, its particular use and advantages, being 
formed for the purpose of detaching the scales of the fir cones, and the 
seeds lodged beneath, which are its natural food, and foi splitting and 
tearing apples to pieces, for the sake of the kernels, which is the only part 
they delight in. 
It also assists the bird in climbing up trees, and in raising itself from 
the lower to the upper bars of its cage, which it performs with such ex- 
terity , that from its mode of scrambling, and from the beauty of its p umage, 
it has obtained the name of German Parrot. 
The colour., of it, plumage are very apt to vary ; that of the mak m 
general being red, inclining to rose-colour, nutted mote or ess wi ^ 
l under pL be.ng considerably paler, becotn.ng ahnos ute a, 
vent, the wings bro^, the tail a little forked, and the legs black. 
