History of British animals - University of Guam Marine Laboratory

76 BIRDS. PASSERES. Loxia.79. L. curvirostra. Crossbill.— Bill as long as the middletoe. Wings destitute of white bands.Loxia, Will. Qm. 181. Sibb- Scot. 10. Linn. i.Syst. 2.09. Penn. Brit-Zool. i. 319. Temm. Orn. i. 328— E, Shill Apple —Summer W, ; Gylfingroes visitant.Length 6|, breadth 11| inches; weight 1^ ounces.the tongue cartilaginous, concave, and broad before.Bill dark horn colour;Legs and claws dusky;soles tubercular ;claws regularly curved, with sharp margins. Irides dusky.Wings dusky, the outer margins of the feathers pale. The first and thirdquills equal, the second, the longest; the second, third, and fourth, slightlyabbreviated on the outer web. Tail dusky, forked, of 12 feathers, obliquelytruncated outwards at the extremity. The plumage at the vent inclines towhite ;on the rest of the body, except the wings and tail, it is of a reddishorange, changing with age into yellow and cinereous. The plumage of thefemale is dull, cinereous, mixed with green. Breeds, early in the spring,inthe north of Europe in the pine forests, in the clefts of branches. Eggs 4 or5, greenish-grey, with a circle of brown spots and rays at the larger end.Young like the "female. Food consists of the seeds of fir-apples, which it readilyreaches by— means of its singular bill. In a cage its motions resemble thoseof a parrot. It is not known to breed here, but visits us in June, and continuesthroughout the summer. A male and female were sent us in December1822 by the Rev. Alexander Espline, Schoolmaster of Monymeal. Inboth examples the lower jaw crossed the left side of the upper. The muscleson the rightside for closing the lower jaw were much larger than those onthe left,— a singular example of compensation for the loss of power, occasionedby the oblique position and motion of the lower jaw.As stragglers connected with this genus the two following species meritsome notice-(1.) L. Pi/tiopsiltacus. Parrot Crossbill.— This species issupposed to be referredto by Pennant in his Brit. Zool. i.319., " We received a male and femaleout of Shropshire, which were superior in size to the former ; the billremarkably thick and short, more curvated than that of the common kind,and the ends more blunt." A Scottish example of this species was sent fromRoss-shire to Mr D. Ross, gunmaker, Edinburgh, and is recorded, on theauthority of Sir William Jardine, by Mr Selby, in his valuable " Illustrationsof British Ornithology," i. p. 254. According to Temminck, Orn. i.325., thebdl is shorter than the middle-toe, and seven lines broad at the base. Thisspecies is common to Europe and North America, and may be expected to occurin this country occasionally.Crossbill.— (2.) Ij.falciroslra. White-winged According to Mr Templeton,"a female of this species was shot within two miles of Belfast, in the monthof January 1802," Lin. Trans, vii. 309. It is a native of North America,and may readily be distinguished by its inferior size, and by two white bandsacross the wings.Gen. XXXVIII. CORYTHUS. Hawfinch—Bill inflated.Upper mandible bent over the under.80. C. Envcleator. Common Hawfinch.— Colour reddish ;the wings and tail black.Loxia en. Linn. Syst.i. 299—Pine Gross-Beak. Perm. Brit. Zool. i.317.— Pyrrhula en. Temm. Orn. i. 333.—A summer visitant of Scotland.