WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL 533 



neither the wings nor the tail. The head, back, rump, throat, and 

 breast are varying shades of chrome yellow with an occasional dash 

 of dull red; the scapulars and upper tail coverts are black. The lores, 

 orbital region, and forehead are a dull black. This plumage wears 

 into the first nuptial plumage which, to the eye, brightens the yellow 

 by loss of the barbules of the feathers. The mouse gray basal portion 

 of the body feathers is somewhat in evidence. 



The adult winter plumage is acquired by a complete postnuptial 

 molt. Probably, nearly all young birds assume the full red adult 

 plumage at this molt. The birds become a rosy or hoary brick or 

 geranium red with the wings, tail, and scapularies black. The wing 

 bands and tertiary edgings are white. The abdomen is smoke gray 

 and the under tail coverts dull white, rose tinged, both streaked with 

 clove brown. The colors are much pinker than those of L. c. minor 

 in the corresponding dress and the white wing bands are distinctive. 



The adult nuptial plumage is acqmred by wear, brightening to 

 the eye the rosy tints due in large part to the loss of the barbules 

 from a part of each barb. The general effect is that of a rosy bird 

 mottled with whitish spots. 



He says tlaat the female, as in the case of allied species, is probably 

 indistinguishable from the male in the natal down and juvenal plum- 

 ages. The first winter plumage, acquired by a partial post-juvenal 

 molt which does not involve the wings or tail, is olive bluff, similar 

 to L. c. minor, from which it may easily be distinguished by the 

 wing bands. Further, it is more distinctly mottled and streaked 

 with deeper olive brown. The first nuptial plumage is simply the 

 previous plumage modified by wear. The adult winter plumage is, 

 of coiu-se, acquired by a complete postnuptial molt and shows a 

 certain amount of yellow scattered through it, somewhat brightened 

 by wear and becoming the adult nuptial plumage. Females never 

 become pink. 



liidgway (1901) mentions specifically the adult male only in con- 

 nection with the bin, which he describes as horn color, darker termi- 

 nally, and the "dusky" legs and feet. W. W. Cooke (1885) mentions 

 a male in which the lower mandible tiu-ned to the left while in six 

 other specimens the bill turned to the right. 



Food. — One might think that this species, with its crossed bill 

 especially adapted to pry open cones, would have a specialized and 

 limited diet. Actually, the bird partakes of a wide and varied diet. 

 Thus, a bird collected on Aug. 9, 1920, in the Pribilof Islands by G. D. 

 Hanna was, according to Preble and McAtee (1923), "apparently 

 feeding on the unripe seeds of wild parsnip. * * * The stomach of 

 this bird was entirely filled with remains of blowflies {Calliphora 



