484 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Loxia curvirostra var. americana, Baird. 



BED CROSSBILL. 



Curvirostra americami, WiLS. Am. Oni. IV, 1811, 44, pi. xxxi, f. 1, 2. —Baird, Birds N. 

 Am. 1858, 426. — Cooper & Suckley, 198. — Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 

 1869, 281 (Alaska). — Cooper, Orn.- Cal. I, 148. — Samuels, 291. Loxia americami, 

 Bon. List, 1838. — Bon. & Schlegel, Mon. Loxiens, 5, tab. vi. — Newberry, Zoijl. 

 California and Oregon Route, P. R. R. Rep. VI, iv, 1857, 87. —Bon. k Schlegel, 

 Mon. Lox. 5, pi. vi. Loxia curvirostra, FoRSTER, Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, No. 23. 

 AuD. Biog. II, 1834, 559 ; V, 511, pi. cxcvii. — Ib. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 186, pi. cc. 

 " Loxia pusilla, Illiger" (Bp.). "Loxia fusca, Vieillot" (Bp.). 



Sp. Char. Old male dull red (the shade difiering in the specimen, sometimes brick-red, 

 sometimes vermilion, etc.) ; darkest across the back ; wings and tail dark blacki.sh- 



brown. Young male yellowish. Female 

 dull greenish-olive above, each feather with 

 a dusky centre ; rump and crown bright 

 greenish-yellow. Beneath gi-ayish ; tinged, 

 especially on the sides of the body, with 

 greenish-yellow. Young olive above ; whit- 

 ish beneath, conspicuously streaked above 

 and below with blackish. Male about 6 

 inches ; wing, 3..30 ; tail, 2.25. 



Hab. Northern America generally, com- 

 ing southward in winter. Resident in the 

 Alleghany and Rocky Mountains. 



There are considerable differences 

 both in color and size, especially of 

 bill, in specimens from various parts 

 of North America, and to a less degree from the same locality. While 

 those of the Atlantic and Pacific coast have bills of much the same size, in 

 skins from the mountains of California this member is much stouter ; in 

 this character approaching the L. mexicana of Strickland, 

 in which the bill presents its maxinnim of tlie North 

 American form. 



It would not probably be far out of the way to consider 

 the European and all tlie American common Crossbills as 

 the same species, differing only as races, and perhaps in- 

 cluding L. hwialayana, which is smaller even tlian ameri- 

 cana. 



We have not observed any American Crossbills with two 

 reddish bands across the wing-coverts, corresponding to the 

 variety rubrifasciata of Europe. 



L. 2J!Jtiopsittdcus of Europe is much the largest of all the 

 species, measuring seven inches in length, and with the bill 

 seven linqs high at base. 



Loxia americana. 



California. 



