484 



NORTH AMEKIl'A^' BIRDS. 



Loxia curvirostra var. americana, TSaird. 



KED CKOSSBILL. 



Curvirostra cnncricaiut, WiLs. Am. Oni. IV, ISll, 44, pi. xx.xi, f. 1, 2. — Baird, Birds N. 

 Am. 1858, 426. — Cooper & Slxkley, 198. — D.\ll & Bannister, Tr. Cli. Ac. I, 

 1869, 281 (Alaska). — Cooper, Orn. C.il. I, 148. — Samuels, 291. Loxia americaivt, 

 Bon. List, 1838. — Box. & Sohlegel, Mon. Loxiens, 5, tab. yi. — Newberry, ZoiJl. 

 California ami Oregon Route, P. R. R. Hep. VI, iv, 1857, 87. — BoN. & Schlegel, 

 Mon. Lox. 5, pi. vi. Loxia curvirostra, Forster, Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, No. 23. 

 AuD. Biog. II, 1S34, 559 ; V, 511, pi. cxcvii. — Ib. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 186, pi. cc. 

 " Loxia pusilla, Illiger" (Bp.). " Loxia fusca, Vieillot" (Bp.). 



Sp. Char. Old male dull red (the .«hade differing in the specimen, sometimes brick-red, 

 sometimes vermilion, etc.) ; darkest across the back ; wings and tail dark blackish- 

 brown. Young male yellowish. Female 

 dull greenish-olive above, each feather with 

 a dusky centre ; rump and crown bright 

 greenish-yellow. Beneath grayish ; tinged, 

 especially on the sides of the body, with 

 greenish-yellow. Ko!<np' olive above; whit- 

 ish beneath, conspicuously streaked above 

 and below with blackish. Male about 6 

 inches; wing, 3.30; tail, 2.25. 



Hab. Northern America generally, com- 

 ing southward in winter. Resident in the 

 Alleghany and Rocky Mountains. 



There are considerable differences 

 both in color and size, especially of 

 bill, in specimens from various parts 

 of North America, and to a less degree from tlie same locality. While 

 those of the Atlantic and Pacific coast have bills of much the same size, in 

 skins from the mountains of California tliis member is much stouter ; in 

 this character approaching the Z. mexicana of Strickland, 

 in which the bill presents its maximum of tlie North 

 American form. 



It would not probably be far out of the way to consider 

 the European and all the American conimoi Crossbills as 

 the same s])ecies, differing only as races, and perhaps in- 

 cluding L. himalayana, which is smaller even than ameri- 

 cana. 



AVe have not obser\ed any American Crossbills with two 

 reddish bands across the wing-coverts, corresponding to the 

 variety ruhrifasciata of Europe. 



L. pytiopsittams of Euro]ie is much the largest of all the 

 species, measuring .seven inches in lengtli, and with the bill 

 seven lines high at base. 



Ij)xia americana. 



Cali/ornia. 



