so The Two-Barred Crossbill 



Family— FRINGILLID.^. Subfamily— FRINGILLIN.E. 



The Two-Barred CroSvSbill. 



Lo\ia bifasctala, C. L. Brkhm. 



HOWARD SAUNDERS gives the following account of the distribution of 

 this species, aud its claims to be regarded as British seem to be well 

 supported :— It " inhabits the coniferous forests of Northern Russia, and 

 Siberia, as far as the Pacific ; wandering in autumn aud winter to South Sweden, 

 Denmark, Heligoland, North Germany, Holland, Belgium, the North of France, 

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

 in Cornwall; in the autumn of 1845, a flock appeared in the ueighbourhood of 

 Brampton, in Cumberland, and ten or eleven were shot, six of them being in 

 female plumage; 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. Doubleda}' shot a 

 bird in his garden at Eppiug. Others have been observed in various parts of 

 the United Kingdom." (Manual of British Birds, p. 195.) A male was obtained 

 at Westfield, Sussex, iu 1899, aud a female at Woodchurch, Kent, in 1902. 



The adult male has the feathers of the upper surface of a rose-madder tint, 

 browner on the back, and inclining to carmine on the rump, the bases of the 

 feathers broadly black ; the wings are black, the greater aud median coverts being 

 broadly tipped with white ; the inner secondaries edged with white at their 

 extremities ; tail brownish-black, with rosy-white edges to the feathers ; under 

 surface rose-madder, whitish on the bell}', becoming quite white towards the vent; 

 beak and feet horn-brown ; iris hazel. The female above is greenish-grey, washed 

 with yellow, and streaked with brown ; the rump is yellow ; under parts sordid 

 yellow, streaked with brown ; the throat and abdomen paler. The j'oung bird is 

 distinctly greyer than the female, more prominently streaked, with narrower tips 

 to the median coverts; the flights and tail-feathers with well-defined greenish- 

 white margins. 



The American form of this species (known as the "White-winged Crossbill") 

 has, on several occasions, been obtained upon our shores ; but, considering the 



