886 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSERES - OSCINES. 



-American Red Crossbill. (L. A. Fuertes.) 

 Carolina and Louisiana; resident in Maine. 



less, very variable; deptli at base 0.35; under mandible usually weaker than upper. 9 and 

 young : Dull gre<'nish-olive, inueh mixed with gray or dusky, brighter and more yellowish 



on head and rump ; below, gray, most feathers 

 skirted with dingy yellowish, overcasting most 

 of the plumage. Very young are dusky, streaked 

 with grayish-white, usually no trace of oliva- 

 ceous ; below, gray, streaked with dusky ;• bill 

 weak. From such state as this the ^ usually 

 passes through stages resembling the 9 » being 

 found in every possible patchy state of mixed 

 gray, olive and dusky-reddish ; sometimes ap- 

 pears to pass directly into the red state, and the 

 same is doubtless the case with other species. 

 N. Am., alpine and northerly; S. in most of 

 the U. S. in winter, sometimes even to South 

 etc., mountains S. to Georgia, and in the Rocky 

 and other mountains of the West ; abundant irregularly, in unwary but timid flocks, usually in- 

 cluding some individuals of the other species, fluttering and creeping about in the foliage of 

 coniferous trees. Nesting often in winter or early spring when snow still covers the ground; 

 nest in forks or among twigs of a tree, founded on a mass of twigs and bark-strips, the inside 

 felted of finer materials, including small twigs, rootlets, grasses, hair, feathers, etc. ; eggs 

 8-4, 0.75 X 0.57, pale greenish, spotted and dotted about larger end with dark purplish-brown, 

 with lavender shell- markings. L. c. americana of former eds. of the Key ; name changed 

 because of the prior Loxia americana Gm. 1788, which is a species of the genus Sporophila. 

 Our bird is recognizable as a subspecies distinct from L. curvirostra of Europe, and named as 

 Crucirostra minor by Brehm, Naum. 1853, p. 93; it has many synonyms, among which is 

 L. e. hendirei Kidgw. Pr. Biol. Soc. Wash, ii, Apr. 1884, p. 101, and Man. 1887, p. 392, 

 bestowed upon specimens intermediate between this form and the following : 

 L. c. strick'landi. (To H. E. Strickland. Fig. 247.) Mexican Crossbill. Like the 

 last; larger; length about 7.00 ; wing nearly or quite 4.00 ; tail 2.50 ; tarsus 0.70; bill 0.75 

 or more long, depth at base 0.50 ; the under 

 mandible especially more robust. Southern 

 Eocky Mts. ; westward to the Sierras Ne- 

 vadas, and southward on the table lands of 

 Mexico to Guatemala. L. c. mexicana of 

 former eds. of the Key ; L. c. stricklancli, Pr. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. viii, 1885, p. 354; A. 0. U. 

 Lists, 1886 and 1895, No. 521 rt. 

 LEUCOSTIC'TE. (Gr. XfVKos, leukos, -._^ 

 white ; (ttiktt], sticte, varied. Fig. 248.) Rosy 

 Finches. Bill small, conic-acute, ruffed at 

 base with antrorse plumules meeting over cul- 

 men and concealing short nasal fossa^ and 

 small nostrils. Side of under mandible (in 

 typical species) with a sharp ridge running 

 obliquely upward and forward. C'ulmen 

 ridged between two slight dejiressions parallel with itself, gently convex throughout. No 

 obvious angulation of commissural edge of upper mandible; that of lower with decided bend ; 

 gonys straight. Wings long, folding beyond middle of tail, tipped by first 3 primaries, 4th 

 shorter. Tail of moderate length, forked, its feathers rather broad, its coverts reaching about 



Mexican Crossbill. (L. A. Fuertes.) 



