Much has been said and repeated respecting the colours of this species as connected with the differences of sex and age. Accustomed as I am to judge of every thing relating to ornithology on the spot where I can procure specimens, and examine them with all necessary care, I have not failed to employ this method in the present case, and I now give it as my opinion that, although learned naturalists may contradict what I am about to state, it will eventually be acknowledged to be correct. I have shot as many specimens of this Crossbill as I could desire, and on opening perhaps more than sixty, which I should suppose enough to know their sexes, in early spring, summer, autumn and winter, I found the young of the year in July invariably similar to the females which had evidently laid eggs that season, excepting that they were smaller, and had their tints duller. The males, which had either been paired or not that season, but which, however, were older than the first (a fact easily ascertained by the inspection of their stronger bills, legs and claws, and their stronger, harder and tougher flesh), shewed a considerable quantity of red mixed with yellow on the rump, head and breast. Others having equal appearances of age were of a dull olive-yellow, and proved to be females. In such specimens as had the bill very much worn on its edges, and the legs and feet diseased from the adhesion of the resinous matter of the fir trees, on which they spend most of their time, and roost on them at night, were of a bright brick-red in certain lights, changing alternately to carmine or vermilion, on the whole upper parts of the body. Females bearing the same appearances of old age, were as I have represented them in my plate.
Reader, as men may commit errors when most anxious to arrive at the truth, you will greatly oblige me by undertaking a series of observations, similar to those which I have made, and stating the result.
Loxia curvirostra, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 299.—Lath. Synops. vol. i. p. 361.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 117.
American Crossbill, Curvirostra americana, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iv. p. 44. pl. 21. fig. 1, 2.
Common Crossbill, Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 583.
Adult Male. Plate CXCVII. Fig. 1, 1.
Bill of ordinary length, strong, convex above and beneath; mandibles crossing each other and compressed towards the tips, which are incurvate and acute. Nostrils small, basal, rounded, covered by the small incumbent feathers of the forehead. The general form is compact and robust, the head and neck large. Feet rather short, strong; tarsus short compressed, anteriorly scutellate, sharp behind; toes separated, the two lateral nearly equal, and considerably shorter than the middle one; claws compressed, very acute, curved, the hind one largest.
The plumage is blended, but rather firm. Wings of ordinary length, curved, acute, the first and second primaries longest. Tail short, small, emarginate.
Bill brown, horn-colour on the edges, and darker at the tip. Iris hazel. Feet dusky. The general colour of the plumage is a dull light red, inclining to vermilion, darker on the wings. Quills and tail-feathers brownish-black; the red colour is paler on the lower parts, and on the belly passes into whitish.
Length 7 inches, extent of wings 10; bill along the ridge 8⁄12; tarsus 7⁄12.