Notes on the Plumage of North Atnerican Sparrows 



47 



Notes on the Plumage of North American Sparrows 



THIRTEENTH PAPER 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



(See frontispiece) 



Crossbill [fjixia cmviroslra, Figs. 1-3). The juxcnal, or nestling ])liiniage 

 of both sexes of this s))ecies stiggests that of a female Ptirijle Finch rather than 

 that of a Crossbill, being streaked with dusky and with no trace of red. By a 

 molt of the body feathers, this plumage is followed by the first winter plumage 

 (Fig. 2), with its widely varying mixture of red and green and yellow, never 

 exactly alike in any two specimens. 



First nuptial plumage is acquired by wear, which, as Dwight has shown, lias 

 the efTect of brightening the whole plumage throtigh a loss of the grayish 

 barbules. 



The adult plumage (Fig. i) is gained at the first postnuptial, that is, second 

 fall, molt, and there is no further change in the color of the bird aside from that 

 produced by the wear just mentioned. 



The fem.de passes from the streaked nestling plumage into first winter 

 plumage, which, while averaging a little duller, is essentially like that of the 

 adult (Fig. 3). 



The two American races of Crossbill stand in the A. O. U. Check-List as 

 follows: 



Loxici cmviroslra minor (Brehm). Range: Xorthern North America. 

 Breeds from central Alaska, northern Mackenzie, central Ungava, and New- 

 foundland, south to California (Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Mountains), 

 southern Colorado, Michigan, and in the Alleghanies of northern Georgia 

 (casually in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virginia); winters irregularly 

 south to southern California, New Mexico, northern Texas, Louisiana, and 

 Florida; casual in Lower California. Guadalupe Island, and Bermuda. 



