WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS. 37 
LOXIA BIFASCIATA ann LOXIA LEUCOPTERA. 
EUROPEAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL and AMERICAN 
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 
(PLatE 19.) 
The two White-winged Crossbills are so nearly allied that many ornitho- 
logists have considered them to be specifically identical. The points relied 
upon to distinguish them are as follows :—The birds of the Old World are 
said to be larger and to have a stouter bill. This is, on an average, un- 
doubtedly the case. European examples vary in length of wing from 3°8 
to 3°4, whilst those from America only measure 3°5 to 3:2 inches. The 
average height of the bill in European examples is ‘4 and that of American 
examples ‘3 inch. The scapulars and the middle of the back of European 
examples are dark red with brown centres in the adult male, whilst the 
same feathers are nearly uniform very dark brown in American examples. 
European examples are said to have the tail less forked than in American 
birds ; but I cannot find the slightest difference in this respect. Our birds 
are also said to have more distinct white edges to the tail-feathers ; but, so 
far as my observations go, I find that newly moulted birds from both 
localities have equally white edges, which disappear in both forms before 
the next autumn. It is also stated that the red of the adult male inclines 
to scarlet in the European bird and to crimson in the American; but this 
appears to be an unreliable character, the former being probably younger 
or less vigorous birds. It is not known that there is any difference 
whatever in the notes or habits of the two forms, and it will perhaps be 
best to treat them as local races of a common species. The synonymy 
of the two races is as follows :— 
LOXIA BIFASCIATA, 
EUROPEAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILUL. 
Crucirostra bifasciata Brehm, Isis, 1827, p. 714; et auctorum plurimorum— 
Bonaparte, Degland § Gerbe, Taczanowsky, Newton, Dresser, &c. 
Crucirostra tenioptera (Giloger), Brehm, Isis, 1827, p. 716. 
Loxia teenioptera, Gloger, Isis, 1827, p. 419. 
Loxia bifasciata (Brehm), Selys-Longch. Faun. Belge, p. 76 (1842). 
Loxia leucoptera, Gmel, apud Middendorff, Schrenck, Radde, &c. 
LOXIA LEUCOPTERA. 
AMERICAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 
Loxia leucoptera, G'mel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 844 (1788); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Temminck, Audubon, Bonaparte § Schlegel, ( Wilson), (Baird), Gould, Newton, &c, 
