ISO 
BEArTIEUL BIEDS. 
These birds are distiiiaruished by a' very short bill, the 
breadth of which is often greater than its length. 
The commissure of the bill, in nearly the whole of the 
genera, is yery much cniwed, and the upper mandible, 
or rather the culmeu, arched from its base. The feet 
liave the tarsus shorter than the middle toe ; and the 
front toes are entirely divided. Wing, short, the 
three first quills nearly of equal length. Their food 
consists principally of seeds, berries, and kernels ; 
and though the smaller species confine themselves for 
the most part to grain or seeds, which they open, 
rejecting the husk, some of the foreign species, as 
Temminck observes, have the bill excessively large 
and strong, and capable of fracturing the most ligneous 
seed-cases. One genus Loxia exhibits a beautiful 
adaptation of structure to the peculiar food upon 
which it is appointed to subsist. The extremities of 
the two mandibles, which are rather long, are crossed, 
which enables them, by the exercise of the peculiar 
muscular power by which the mandibles are moved, to 
extract the seeds from the cones of pines and firs, on 
which they principally subsist. The points of the 
mandible are capable of being 
brought together, and are 
then inserted beneath the 
scales of the fir cones : on 
the mandibles being closed, 
the scales are wrenched open by the points acting in 
different directions, and the seed secured and raised 
within the bill by means of the tongue. The mandi- 
V O 
bles are crossed in different directions in difterent 
individuals. In some specimens the upper mandible 
