Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
An adult male from Boston examined. The roof of the mouth is moderately concave, its anterior horny part with five prominent ridges; the lower mandible deeply concave. Tongue 4 1/2 twelfths long, firm, deflected at the middle, deeper than broad, papillate at the base, with a median groove; for the distal half of its length, it is cased with a firm horny substance, and is then of an oblong shape, when viewed from above, deeply concave, with two flattened prominences at the base, the point rounded and thin, the back or lower surface convex. This remarkable structure of the tongue appears to be intended for the purpose of enabling the bird, when it has insinuated its bill between the scales of a strobilus, to lay hold of the seed by pressing it against the roof of the mandible. In the Crossbills, the tongue is nearly of the same form, but more slender, and these birds feed in the same manner, in so far as regards the prehension of the food. In the present species, the tongue is much strengthened by the peculiar form of the basi-hyoid bone, to which there is appended as it were above a thin longitudinal crest, giving it great firmness in the perpendicular movements of the organ. The œsophagus a b c d, Fig. 1. is two inches 11 twelfths long, dilated on the middle of the neck so as to form a kind of elongated dimidiate crop, 4 twelfths of an inch in diameter, projecting to the right side, and with the trachea passing along that side of the vertebræ. The proventriculus c, is 8 twelfths long, somewhat bulbiform, with numerous oblong glandules, its greatest diameter 4 1/2 twelfths. A very curious peculiarity of the stomach e, is, that in place of having its axis continuous with that of the œsophagus or proventriculus, it bends to the right nearly at a right angle. It is a very powerful gizzard, 8 1/2 twelfths long, 8 twelfths broad, with its lateral muscles 1/4 inch thick, the lower very distinct, the epithelium longitudinally rugous, of a light reddish colour. The duodenum, f, g, first curves backward to the length of 1 1/4 inch, then folds in the usual manner, passing behind the right lobe of the liver; the intestine then passes upwards and to the left, curves along the left side, crosses to the right, forms about ten circumvolutions, and above the stomach terminates in the rectum, which is 11 twelfths long. The cœca are 1 1/4 twelfth in length and 1/4 twelfth in diameter. The entire length of the intestine from the pylorus to the anus is 31 1/2 inches (in another male 31); its greatest breadth in the duodenum 2 1/2 twelfths, gradually contracting to 1 1/4 twelfth. Fig. 2. represents the convoluted appearance of the intestine. The œsophagus a b c; the gizzard d, turned forwards; the duodenum, e f; the rest of the intestine, g h the cœca, i; the rectum, i j, which is much dilated at the end.
The trachea is 2 inches 2 twelfths long, of uniform diameter. 1 1/2 twelfth broad, with about 60 rings; its muscles like those of all the other species of the Passerinæ or Fringillidæ.
In a female, the œsophagus is 2 inches 10 twelfths long; the intestine 31 inches long.
In all these individuals and several others, the stomach contained a great quantity of particles of white quartz, with remains of seeds; and in the œsophagus of one was an oat seed entire.
Although this bird is in its habits very similar to the Crossbills, and feeds on the same sort of food, it differs from them in the form and extent of its crop, in having the gizzard much larger, and the intestines more than double the length, in proportion to the size of the bird.