338 
LOXIA. 
the tips of the wing coverts, and forms there a 
bar across the wing. The under parts are also 
of the rich carmine red of the upper, becoming 
paler, and shading into gray on the belly and 
vent. In the Northern Zoology, the old male, 
again, “ is said to have the head, neck, and under 
plumage, orange.”* According to the last quoted 
work, a female, “ killed in winter, has the head, 
ears, rump, and tips of the back and neck fea- 
thers hoary yellow, the rest of the plumage bluish 
gray. This accords with a European specimen 
in our possession, supposed to be an adult female. 
The tinge of hoary yellow, however, extends to 
the centres of the feathers on the back and breast, 
while the colour on the rump is extremely bril- 
liant. The wings and tail are brownish black, 
the quills and secondaries edged with grayish 
white, the tips of the greater and lesser coverts 
of the same colour forming bars across the wing. 
We have now to examine a very curious and 
interesting genus, limited in numbers, but con- 
taining birds whose habits, though often de- 
scribed, have not been sufficiently observed in 
this country. » The appellation of Loxia, has by 
modern ornithologists been restricted to these 
birds, familiarly known as Crossbills from the 
structure of the bill. They are natives of 
temperate countries, are strongly formed, possess 
a powerful flight, and feed chiefly on the seeds 
* Northern Zoology, ii. p. 263. 
