White-winged Crossbill 335 



Description. — Male — General colour of the upper- and lower-parts red, 

 usually of a pinkish tinge ; scapulars, wings, tail and tail-coverta 

 black ; the wings marked with two conspicuous bands of white across 

 the middle and greater coverts ; abdomen and flanks dull whitish ; 

 under tail-coverts black, edged with whitish. Length 6-5 ; wing 3-30 ; 

 tail 2-20 ; culmen -60 ; tarsus -60. 



The female is dusky, streaked above and below with a faint wash 

 of olive-yellow ; rump light yellow ; the wings and tail as in the male. 



Distribution. — The coniferous forests of western Europe and northern 

 North America a« far south as the Adirondacks and northern Michigan ; 

 south in winter to the middle States from the District of Colombia 

 to Nevada. 



In Colorado this bird is a rare straggler ; Drew noted an example 

 in the collection of Dr. Brown of Silverton, taken in Bakers Park, 

 about 9,500 feet, in San Juan co., and recently Knaebel observed a pair 

 on a ranch on a tributary of the upper Bear Creek in Clear Creek co., at 

 about 8,400 feet, at the end of August, on several successive occasions. 



Mr. Chas. S. Thompson, of Glenwood, writes me that in November, 

 1907, he watched for some time a female Wiiite-winged Crossbill in an 

 orchard at Eaton. It was very tame and was busily engaged feeding 

 on the winter buds of the apple trees at the time, and was so near that 

 there could not possibly be any mistake in identification. 



Genus LEUCOSTICTE. 



Moderate-sized Finches — wing 4 to 4-5 — with a rather small conical 

 bill, and the upper and lower mandibles of approximately equal depth ; 

 the nostrils completely concealed by nasal plumes ; wings long and 

 pointed, the primaries exceeding the secondaries by about twice the 

 length of the tarsus ; tail short, from -60 to -65 of wing, distinctly 

 emarginated, more than half concealed by the upper tail-coverts ; 

 tarsus longer than the middle toe and claw ; plumage black or brown, 

 with a good deal of rosy-red. 



The range of this genus covers the more arctic and elevated regions 

 of central and eastern Asia and western America. Of the five 

 distinguishable American forms, four are not infrequent in Colorado. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Plumage distinctly dusky or blackish. L. atrata, p. 338. 



B. Plumage distinctly a shade of brown. 



a. Sides of the crown and nape ashy-grey ; ear-coverts brown, 



sharply defined from the ashy-grey. L. tephrocotis, p. 336. 



b. Ear-coverts, and throat as well, grey like the nape. 



L. t. littoralis. p. 337. 



c. No grey on the head, the dusky crown merging into the general 



brown of the upper-parts. L. australis, p. 338. 



