I 3° 
BRITISH BIRDS® 
THE CROSS-BILL. 
SHEL-APPLE. 
(. Loxia CurviroJlra y Lin . — Le bee Croife , BufF.) 
This bird is about the fize of a Lark, being 
nearly feven inches in length : It is diftinguilhed 
by the peculiar formation of its bill, the upper and 
under mandible curving in oppofite directions, and 
crofling each other at the points ;* its eyes are ha- 
# This lingular conftrudion of the bill is confidered by M. 
Buffon as a defed or error in nature, rather than a permanent 
feature, merely becaufe that, in fome fubjeds, the bill erodes to 
the left, and in others to the right, arifing, as he fuppofes, from 
the way in which the bird has been accuftomed to ufe its bill, 
by employing either the one fide or the other to lay hold of its 
