AMERICAN CROSSBILL. 
159 
this, be the criterion by which to judge of a species; or perhaps 
conceiving themselves the wiser of the two, they have thought 
proper to associate together what Nature has, in the most point- 
ed manner, placed apart. 
In separating these birds, therefore, from the Grosbeaks, and 
classing them as a family by themselves, substituting the specific 
for the generic appellation, I have only followed the steps and 
dictates of that great Original, whose arrangements ought never 
to be disregarded by any who would faithfully copy her. 
The Crossbills are subject to considerable changes of colour; 
the young males of the present species being, during the first 
season, olive yellow mixed with ash; then bright greenish yellow 
intermixed with spots of dusky olive; all of which yellow plu- 
mage becomes, in the second year, of a light red, having the 
edges of the tail inclining to yellow. When confined in a cage 
they usually lose the red colour at the first moulting, that tint 
changing to a brownish yellow, which remains permanent. 
The same circumstance happens to the Purple Finch and Pine 
Grosbeak, both of which, when in confinement, exchange their 
brilliant crimson for a motley garb of light brownish yellow; as 
I have had frequent opportunities of observing. 
The male of this species, when in perfect plumage, is five 
inches and three quarters long, and nine inches in extent; the 
bill is a brown horn colour, sharp, and single edged towards the 
extremity, where the mandibles cross each other; the general 
colour of the plumage is a red-lead colour, brightest on the rump, 
generally intermixed on the other parts with touches of olive; 
wings and tail brown black, the latter forked, and edged with 
yellow; legs and feet brown; claws large, much curved, and 
very sharp; vent white, streaked with dark ash ; base of the bill 
covered with recumbent down, of a pale brown colour; eye 
hazle. 
The female is rather less than the male; the bill of a paler 
horn colour; rump, tail coverts and edges of the tail golden yel- 
low; wings and tail dull brownish black; the rest of the plumage 
olive yellow mixed with ash; legs and feet as in the male. The 
