::04 TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL, 



The forests of America, from Alaska to Labrador, are inhabited 

 by a bird known as the White-winged Crossbill, Loxia leucoptera, 

 which Dr. Sharpe considers to be only entitled to subspecific 

 distinction ; and after examining many specimens, including those 

 in the British Museum, I agree with him that the only difference of 

 any moment between the European and American forms consists in 

 the darker scapulars of the latter ; to which I may add that the 

 red in the male has a pinker tint, and the bill in both sexes is 

 weaker. A hen, ascribed to the American form, in the Strickland 

 Collection at Cambridge, was killed near Worcester in 1838 ; a red 

 male was picked up dead at Exmouth on September 17th 1845 ; 

 and a female, which lived in the late Mr. Stevenson's aviary at 

 Norwich till December 1874, was stated by the dealer of whom it 

 was purchased by Mr. J. H. Gurney to have been captured — it was 

 not said where — on the rigging of the vessel " Beecher Stowe," which 

 arrived at Great Yarmouth in October 1870. Even from Greenland 

 only five occurrences are on record during nearly sixty years, and 

 none from Iceland or the Faeroes. As it is notorious that American 

 White-winged Crossbills, captured at sea comparatively near their 

 own coast, have been brought to the British Islands and have then 

 escaped or been liberated, I do not consider that a claim has been 

 made out to a place in the British list. 



A nest of the Two-barred Crossbill sent to Mr. Dresser, with the 

 parent birds, from the Archangel district, is described as rather 

 smaller and slighter than that of the Common Crossbill, while the 

 eggs are somewhat darker in colour and less in size. In food and 

 habits this bird resembles its congener, but its song being of a 

 superior quality, it is a greater favourite as a cage-bird. 



Adult male : head, neck, mantle and rump carmine-red, slightly 

 mottled with black ; wings black, with white tips to the inner 

 secondaries, and broad pinkish-white edges to the greater and 

 median wing-coverts ; tail-feathers brownish-black, narrowly edged 

 with reddish-white ; under parts carmine red, which fades into 

 white on the belly ; bill horn-colour, lighter on the lower mandible ; 

 legs dull brown. Length 6-25 in. ; wing 37 in. In less mature 

 birds the pink tinge on the wing-bands is wanting, and the flanks are 

 striated. Female : upper parts greenish-grey, with a yellow tint, and 

 dusky-brown streaks ; rump pale yellow ; under parts greyish-yellow, 

 paler on the throat and abdomen, and streaked with dusky-brown 

 Young bird in August : much striated on a greyish ground, with 

 hardly any tinge of yellow ; white upper wing-bar very narrow ; 

 quills and tail-feathers distinctly margined with greenish-white. 



