156 
CRIMSON NUT-CRACKER. 
Pirenestes sanguineus , Swains. 
PLATE IX. 
Head, neck, breast, and upper tail-feathers, glossy crimson ; 
body, wings, and tail, dark brown. 
Loxia ostrina, Vieillot , Ois. Chant. PI. 48. 
It may safely be affirmed that this extraordinary 
bird has the thickest ;and most massive bill in the 
feathered creation. Both mandibles, indeed, are of 
an enormous size ; but contrary to what we find in 
the generality of birds, the under one is even still 
more powerful than the upper. What are the nuts 
or seeds, the breaking of which requires such an 
amazing strength of bill, is perfectly unknown ; but 
they must be of a stone-like hardness. This is 
proved by another circumstance, which further 
shews that, however uncommon, this amazing de- 
velopement is not in the least degree superfluous. 
In the two specimens we have examined, one in the 
Paris museum, the other in our own, the edges of 
the upper mandible are chipped and broken, obvi- 
ously from the difficulty which the bird has expe- 
rienced in breaking some nuts of unusual hardness, 
and which it has not been able to accomplish without 
