characteristic example of the use of the great Christian Bymbol in the insignia of the knighthood of the present day. la the highest class of British insignia, the cross appears on the circlets only of the imperial crown and of the
coronets of princes and princesses of the blood royal.
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Fig. 16.—Dagmar Cross.
A pectoral cross, formed of rich and costly materials, waa worn at times by ecclesiastics of the highest rank. In the East pectoral crosses were worn, suspended about the neck and resting on the breast, as both imperial and episcopal ornaments. Characteristic examples of the pectorala occur in the effigies of Bishops Kilkenny, 1255, at Ely ; GifFard, 1301, at Worcester; and Langton, 1321, at Lichfield. This same term " pectorals " may consis tently be applied to all crosses, worn under similar condi tions by personages of exalted rank. Of such crosses a specimen of singular interest and great beauty, now well known from fac-simile reproductions of it as the " Dagmar cross" (fig. 16 shows both sides of it), was found about 1690 (when her tomb was opened), lying on the breast of the remains of Dagmar, " the bright day," the queen of Waldemar II., king of Denmark, who died in 1213. This jewel, certainly of Byzantine design and workmanship, is of gold, enamelled, having on one side a crucifix, and on the other side portraits of Christ (in the centre), of St Basil, St John Chrysostom, St Mary the Virgin, and Sb John the Apostle-Evangelist.
Crosier or Crozier is the title given to the official staff of an archbishop, which has a cross-head, and so is distinguished from the "pastoral staff "of bishops and abbots, the head of which is curved and resembles that of a shepherd s crook. Examples of the crosier occur in the brasses to Archbishops da Waldeby, 1397, in Westminster Abbey, and Cranley, 1417, in New College Chapel, Oxford ; the latter example has a crucifix for its head, which is the case also in a remarkable drawing of an archbishop in the Lambeth Psalter (c. 1300) in the library at Lambeth. The fine effigy of Archbishop Walter de Gray at York, 1255, has a crook- head staff of great beauty ; in his brass, too, at Chigwell, Essex, Archbishop Harsnett, 1631, is represented, not with a crosier, but with a pastoral staff. Instead of having crook-heads, the crosiers of the prelates of the Greek Church have heads of the " Tau " form, and the extremities of the horizontal bar are curved upwards. The staff of a patriarch has a double cross-head ; and the head of the pontifical staff of the Popo has a triple cross. Good examples of the pastoral staves of bishops and abbots abound in their monumental effigies, of which one of the most admirable is in the brass to Abbot Delamere (c. 1360), at St Alban s. The magnificent enamelled staff of Bishop William of Wykeham, as is well known, is still preserved at New College, Oxford.
(c. b.)
CROSSBILL (Fr. Bec-croisé, Germ. Kreutzschnabe), the name given to a genus of birds, belonging to the family Fringillidae, or Finches, from the unique peculiarity they possess among the whole class of having the horny sheaths of the bill crossing one another obliquely,[1] whence the appellation Loxia (Aods, obliqmis), conferred by Gesner on the group and continued by Linnaeus. At first sight this singular structure appears so like a deformity that writers have not been wanting to account it such,[2] ignorant of its being a piece of mechanism most beautifully adapted to the habits of the bird, enabling it to extract with the greatest ease, from fir-cones or fleshy fruits, the seeds which form its usual and almost invariable food. Its mode of using this unique instrument seems to have been first described by Townson (Tracts on Nat. Hist., p. 116, London: 1799), but only partially, and it was Yarrell who, in 1829 (ZooL Journ., iv. pp. 457-465, pi. xiv. figs. 1--7), explained fully the means whereby the jawa and the muscles which direct their movements become so effective in riving asunder cones or apples, while at the proper moment the scoop-like tongue is instantaneously thrust out and withdrawn, conveying the hitherto protected seed to the bird s mouth. Without going into details it may be observed that in the Crossbills the articulation of the mandible to the quadrate-bone is such as to allow of a very considerable amount of lateral play, and, by a parti cular arrangement of the muscles which move the former, it comes to pass that so soon as the bird opens its mouth the point of the mandible is brought immediately opposite to that of the maxilla (which itself is movable vertically), instead of crossing or overlapping it the usual position when the mouth is closed. The two points thus meeting, the bill ia inserted between the scales or into the pome, but on opening the mouth still more widely, the lateral motion of the mandible is once more brought to bear with great force to wrench aside the portion of the fruit attacked, and then the action of the tongue completes the operation, which is so rapidly performed aa to defy scrutiny, except on very close inspection. Fortu nately the birds soon become tame in confinement, and a little patience will enable an attentive observer to satisfy himself as to the process, the result of which at first seems almost as unaccountable as that of a clever conjuring trick.
curvirostra] is about the size of a Skylark, but more stoutly built. The young (which on leaving the nest have not the tips of the bill crossed) are of a dull olive colour with indistinct dark stripes on the lower parts, and the quills of the wings and tail dusky. After the first moult the differ ence between the sexes is shown by the hens inclining to yellowish-green, while the cocks become diversified by orange-yellow and red, their plumage finally deepening into a rich crimson-red, varied in places by a flame-colour. Their glowing hues are, however, speedily lost by examples which may be kept in confinement, and are replaced by a dull ofange, or in some cases by a bright golden-yellow, and specimens have, though rarely, occurred in a wild state exhibiting the same tints. The cause of these changes is at present obscure, if not unknown, and it must be admitted that their sequence has been disputed by some excellent authorities, but the balance of evidence is certainly in
favour of the above statement. Depending mainly for
- ↑ As an accidental malformation, however, the peculiarity has teen many times observed in other groups of birds, and especially in the Crows ( Corrida). Such cases may be well compared to the monstrosity often seen in Rabbits and other members of the Order Ghres, wherein the incisor teeth grow to inordinate length.
- ↑ The special animosity of De Buffon on this point may perhaps be explained by the existence of a medireval legend (of which, however, be it said, he takes no notice), best known to English readers by JNlr Longfellow s pretty version of Mosen s poem, to the effect that the bird acquired its peculiar conformation of bill and coloration of plumage in recognition of the pity it bestowed on the suffering Saviour at toe crucifixion.
