A REVIEW OF THE AMERICAN CROSSBILLS (LOXIA) 

 OF THE L. CURVIROSTRA TYPE. 



By Robert Ridgway. 



Read March 8, 1884, and pribli.shed by permission of the Director of the U. S. 



National Museum. 



Having long suspected the existence of two forms of the Red 

 Crossbill in the United States, besides the Mexican race (Z. mex- 

 icana Strickl.) which occurs just within our borders in Southern 

 Arizona (and perhaps also in New Mexico), I was not surprised 

 to find this conviction fully confirmed by a fine series of speci- 

 mens presented to the National Museum by Captain Chas. E. Ben- 

 dire, U. S. A., and obtained by him at Fort Klamath, Oregon, 

 during the winter of 1882-83. The form under consideration being 

 unquestionably distinct from both L. amcricana and L. mcxicana, 

 as well as from the several Palrearctic races, and being, so far as I 

 am able to discover, unnamed, I take great pleasure in dedicating 

 it to Captain Bendire as a slight recognition of his very valuable 

 services to North American ornithology. 



I am at present inclined to consider all the Red Crossbills that 

 I have seen, from whatever country, as races of Loxia curvirostra 

 Linn. ; and therefore must prefer for the bird under consideration 

 a trinomial designation, as follows: 



Loxia curvirostra bendirei. 

 bendire's crossbill. 



Loxia amei'icana (part) Baird, B. N. Am., 1858, 426. 



Curvirostra americana (part) Cooper, Orn. Cal., i, 1870, 148. 



Loxia curvirostra var. americana Hensh., Rep. Orn. Wheeler's Exp. 1873 

 (1874), 79 (Ft. Garland, Colorado).— (?) Bendire, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. 

 H., xix, 1877, 116 (Camp Harney, Oregon, in winter). 



Loxia curvirostra var. mexicana RiDGW., Bull. Essex Inst., v, Nov., 1873, iSl, 

 189 (Colorado). 



Loxia curvirostra mexicana MiNOT, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, v, 1880, 229 (Colo- 

 rado). 



Loxia curvirostra bendirei RiDGW., MS. 



lOI 



