536 
GRAN1V0R0US BIRDS. 
are white?, and the young are hatched in June. Suited 
to the sterile climates they inhabit, their fare, besides 
the seeds of the pine, alpine plants, and berries, often 
consists of the buds of the poplar, willow, and other north- 
ern trees and shrubs ; so that they are generally secure of 
the means of subsistence, as long as the snows are not 
too overwhelming. The individuals, as yet seen in the 
United States, are wholly young birds, which, it seems, 
naturally seek out warmer climates than the adult and 
more hardy individuals. 
The length of the Pine Bullfinch is about 9 inches or under. 
Tail considerably forked. Legs black. Bill brownish horn-color. 
CROSSBILLS. (Loxia. Briss.) 
In these birds the bill is robust and convex, with the mandibles 
crossing each other and compressed towards the points, which are 
extended in the form of crescents. Nostrils basal, lateral, rounded, 
hidden by the advancing hairs of the front. Tongue cartilaginous, 
short, entire, and pointed. The tarsus nearly equal with the mid- 
dle toe ; toes divided to the base ; hind nail largest, much curved. — 
Wings moderate, 1st and 2d primaries longest. Tail notched. 
T he female and young differ considerably from the adult male, and 
from each other; there is likewise a difference of plumage accord, 
ing to age and season ; although they are believed to moult but once 
a year. They inhabit the boreal and arctic regions, and possess 
most of the manners of the Grosbeaks and Bullfinches. They live 
principally in the forests of pine and fir ; feeding usually on the 
seeds or nuts of that family of trees, their bills being singularly well 
adapted for the opening of the pine cones ; they feed also on other 
kinds of hard seeds of the trees and shrubs of cold and alpine re- 
gions. In Europe they are observed to nest often in the depth of 
winter, and still later in the cold and arctic regions whither they re- 
tire at the approach of summer. Their migrations are irregular, and 
influenced much by accidental circumstances ; sometimes they ap- 
pear in great numbers, as if driven forth by the approach of famine. 
They are active and not timorous ; and easily tamed. By the genus 
Psittirostra , or Parrot-billed Grosbeak of New Holland, the Cross- 
bills evidently approach the Parrots of the next order Zygodactyli. 
