FRINGILLIN.t. 



THE TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 



LoxiA BiFASCiATA (C. L. Brchm). 



This species — sometimes called the European White-winged 

 Crossbill, to distinguish it from the American form — inhabits the 

 coniferous forests of Northern Russia and Siberia as far as Kam- 

 chatka and the Pacific ; wandering in autumn and winter to South 

 Sweden, Denmark, Heligoland, North Germany, Holland, Belgium, 

 the north of France, Switzerland, North Italy, Austria and Poland. 

 In our islands the first recorded specimen was obtained near Belfast, 

 Ireland, on May nth 1802, and in July or August 1868, a s&cond 

 was obtained in co. Dublin. A few years prior to 1843 one was 

 killed in Cornwall ; between November ist 1845 and March 25th 

 1846 eleven were shot in the neighbourhood of Brampton in 

 Cumberland; in May 1846 two or three were killed from a flock 

 near Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk ; and about the same time the late 

 H. Doubleday shot a bird at Epping. Others seem to have been 

 observed from time to time in various parts of the United Kingdom, 

 and in the autumn of 1889 another invasion took place, many birds 

 being observed from Yorkshire to Surrey. On June i8th 1894 an 

 adult male was shot]at North Ronaldshay, Orkneys, while in February 

 1895 there were occurrences in Somerset and in co. Fermanagh. 



