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about Petersburgh, and brought to market in great numbers. It returns to Lapland in spring; is found in Newfoundland; and on the western coast of North America.*

Were I to reason from analogy, I would say, that from the great resemblance of this bird to the Purple-finch (Fringilla purpurea), it does not attain its full plumage until the second summer; and is subject to considerable change of colour in moulting, which may have occasioned all the differences we find concerning it in different authors. But this is actually ascertained to be the case; for Mr. Edwards saw two of these birds alive in London, in cages; the person in whose custody they were, said they came from Norway; that they had moulted their feathers, and were not afterwards so beautiful as they were at first. One of them, he says, was coloured very much like the Greenfinch (Loxia Chloris). The Purple-finch, though much smaller, has the rump, head, back and breast nearly of the same colour as the Pine Grosbeak, feeds in the same manner, on the same food, and is also subject to like changes of colour.

Since writing the above I have kept one of these Pine Grosbeaks, a male, for more than half a year. In the month of August those parts of the plumage which were red became of a greenish yellow, and continue so still. In May and June its song, though not so loud as some birds of its size, was extremely clear, mellow and sweet. It would warble out this for a whole morning together, and acquired several of the notes of a Redbird (L. cardinalis), that hung near it. It is exceedingly tame and familiar, and when it wants food or water utters a continual melancholy and anxious note. It was caught in winter near the North river, thirty or forty miles above New York.

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SPECIES 1. C. AMERICANA.*

AMERICAN CROSSBILL.

[Plate XXXI.-Fig. 1, Male.-Fig. 2, Female.t]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 5640.

ON first glancing at the bill of this extraordinary bird one is apt to pronounce it deformed and monstrous; but on attentively observing the use to which it is applied by the owner, and the dexterity with which he detaches the seeds of the pine tree from the cone, and from the husks that enclose them, we are obliged to confess on this as on many other occasions where we have judged too hastily of the operations of nature, that no other conformation could have been so excellently adapted to the purpose; and that its deviation from the common form, instead of being a defect or monstrosity, as the celebrated French naturalist insinuates, is a striking proof of the wisdom and kind superintending care of the great Creator.

This species is a regular inhabitant of almost all our pine forests situated north of 40°, from the beginning of September to the middle of April. It is not improbable that some of them remain during summer within the territory of the United States to breed. Their numbers must, however, be comparatively few, as I have never yet met with any of them in summer; though I lately took a journey to the Great Pine swamp beyond Pocano mountain, in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, in the month of May, expressly for that purpose; and ransacked for six or seven

*This is not a new species, as supposed by Wilson, but the Loxia curvirostra, LINN. Ed. 10, p. 171.

†This is an adult male; fig 1 is a young bird.

days the gloomy recesses of that extensive and desolate morass, without being able to discover a single Crossbill. In fall, however, as well as in winter and spring, this tract appears to be their favourite rendezvous; particularly about the head waters of the Lehigh, the banks of the Tobyhanna, Tunkhannock, and Bear creek, where I have myself killed them at these seasons. They then appear in large flocks, feeding on the seeds of the hemlock and white pine, have a loud, sharp, and not unmusical note; chatter as they fly; alight during the prevalence of deep snows before the door of the hunter, and around the house, picking off the clay with which the logs are plastered, and searching in corners where urine or any substance of a saline quality had been thrown. At such times they are so tame as only to settle on the roof of the cabin when disturbed, and a moment after descend to feed as before. They are then easily caught in traps; and will frequently permit one to approach so near as to knock them down with a stick. Those killed and opened at such times, are generally found to have the stomach filled with a soft greasy kind of earth or clay. When kept in a cage they have many of the habits of the Parrot; often climbing along the wires; and using their feet to grasp the cones in, while taking out the seeds.

This same species is found in Nova Scotia, and as far north as Hudson's bay, arriving at Severn river about the latter end of May; and, according to accounts, proceeding farther north to breed. It is added, that "they return at the first setting in of frost."*

Hitherto this bird has, as usual, been considered a mere variety of the European species; though differing from it in several respects; and being nearly one-third less; and although the singular conformation of the bill of these birds and their peculiarity of manners are strikingly different from those of the Grosbeaks, yet many, disregarding these plain and obvious discriminations, still continue to consider them as belonging to the genus Loxia; as if the particular structure of the bill should, in all cases but

*Pennant.

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 pointed 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 plumage 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 yellow; wings and tail dull brownish black; the rest of the plumage olive yellow mixed with ash; legs and feet as in the male. The

young males during the first season, as is usual with most other birds, very much resemble the female. In moulting, the males exchange their red for brownish yellow, which gradually brightens into red. Hence at different seasons they differ greatly in colour.

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