76 BIRDS, PASSERES. Loxia* 
79. L. curvlrostra. Crossbill. — Bill as long as the middle 
toe. Wings destitute of white bands. ' 
liOxia, Will. Orn. 181. Sihb~ Scot. 10. Linn. Syst. i. 299. Penn. Brit* 
Zool. i. 319. Temm. Orn. i. 328. — Shill Apple; IF, Gylfingroes. — 
Summer visitant. 
Length 6|, breadth 11 4 inches; weight 1| ounces. Bill dark horn colour; 
the tongue cartilaginous, concave, and broad before. Legs and claws dusky ; 
soles tubercular ; claws regularly curved, with sharp margins. Irides dusky. 
Wings dusky, the outer margins of the feathers pale. The first and third 
quills equal, the second, the longest ; the second, third, and fourth, slightly 
abbreviated on the outer web. Tail dusky, forked, of 12 feathers, obliquely 
truncated outwards at the extremity. The plumage at the vent inclines to 
white ; on the rest of the body, except the wings and tail, it is of a reddish 
orange, changing with age into yellow and cinereous. The plumage of the 
female is dull, cinereous, mixed v/ith green. Breeds, early in the spring, in 
the north of Europe in the pine forests, in the clefts of branches. Eggs 4 or 
5, greenish-grey, with a circle of brown spots and rays at the larger end. 
Young like the female. Food consists of the seeds of fir-apples, which it readi- 
ly reaches by means of its singular bill. — In a cage its motions resemble those 
of a parrot. It is not known to breed here, but visits us in June, and con- 
tinues throughout the summer. A male and female were sent us in Decem- 
ber 1822 by the Bev. Alexander Espline, Schoolmaster of Monymeal. In 
both examples. the lower jaw crossed the left side of the upper. The muscles 
on the right side for closing the lower jaw were much larger than those on 
the left, — a singular example of compensation for the loss of power, occa- 
sioned by the oblique position and motion of the lower jaw. 
As stragglers connected v.rith this genus the two following species merit 
some notice- 
(1.) L. Pytiopsittacus. Parrot Grossbill — This species is supposed to be re- 
ferred to by Pennant in his Brit. Zool. i. 319., “ We received a male and fe- 
male out of Shropshire, which were superior in size to the former ; the bill 
remarkably thick and short, more curvated than that . of the common kind, 
and the ends more blunt.” A Scottish example of this species was sent from 
Boss-shire to Mr D. Boss, gunmaker, Edinburgh, and is recorded, on the 
authority of Sir WiUiam Jardine, by Mr Selby, in his valuable “ Illustrations 
of British Ornithology,” i, p. 254. According to Temminck, Om. i. 325., the 
bill is shorter than the middle-toe, and seven lines broad at the base. This 
species is common to Europe and North America, and may be expected to oc- 
cur in this country occasionally, 
(2.) 1j. falcirostra. White- winged Crossbill. — According to Mr Templeton, 
a female of this species “ was shot within two miles of Belfast, in the month 
of January 1802,” Lin. Trans, vii. 309. It is a native of North America, 
and may readily be distinguished by its inferior size, and by two white bands 
across the wings. 
Gen. XXXVIII. CORYTHUS. Hawfinch. —Bill inflat- 
ed. Upper mandible bent over the under. 
80. C. Emicleator. Common Hawfincli.— Colour reddish ; 
the wings and tail black. 
Loxia en. Linn. Syst. i. 299.^ — Pine Gross-Beak. Penn. Erit. ZooL i. 317* 
. — Pyrrhula eti. Temm. Orn. i. 333— A summer visitant of Scotland. 
