TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 75 



After the last invasion many pairs bred annually in different 

 fir woods for some years, but the numbers have decreased, as 

 has always happened previously. The nest, which is not unlike 

 that of the Bullfinch, is placed on the branch of a conifer ; a 

 cup of grass, moss, and lichens, often with a little wool, is built 

 on a platform of interwoven ftr twigs. The Crossbill is an early 

 but erratic nester ; eggs may be laid in February or March or 

 much later in the season. Four is the usual number, and they 

 are of the Greenfinch type, greyish white spotted with reddish 

 brown (Plate 34). 



The plumage of birds in a flock is usually varied ; the old 

 males are dark crimson, younger males may be blotched with 

 orange and show yellow on the rump, and the females are 

 mostly greenish yellow, and are more or less striped. The 

 striations are noticeable on the greenish grey young birds. A 

 pale wing bar is inconspicuous when birds are in the trees. 

 The bill, legs and irides are brown. Length, 5 "5-6 '5 ins. Wing, 

 3'9 ins. Tarsus, "65 in. The size is very variable. 



Two-barred Crossbill. Loxia kucoptera bifasciata (Brehm). 



Two forms of the Two-barred Crossbill have been recorded 

 as British, but the claim of the American, L. leucoptera Gmelin, 

 is not established. The form which breeds in northern Russia 

 and western Siberia has occasionally spread westward and 

 examples have reached Britain, but the bird has never been 

 known to breed here. It may at once be distinguished from 

 our bird by its double wing bar, conspicuously white, though this 

 is least noticeable in young birds. Its habits and changes of 

 plumage appear to be similar to those of the Common Cross- 

 bill. Length, 6 ins. Wing, 3-4 ins. Tarsus, '6 in. 



