FRINGILLIN.«. 



195 



THE TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 

 LoxiA liiFASCiATA (C. L. Brehm). 



This species, sometimes called the European White-winged 

 Crossbill, to distinguish it from the American form, inhabits the 

 coniferous forests of Northern Russia and Siberia as far as the 

 Pacific ; wandering in autumn and winter to South Sweden, Den- 

 mark, 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 1S68 a second was obtained in 

 CO. Dublin. A few years prior to 1843 o'l^ ^^^-S killed in Cornwall ; 

 in the autumn of 1845 ^ flock appeared in the neighbourhood of 

 Brampton in Cumberland, and ten or eleven were shot, si.\ of them 

 being in female plumage ; in May 1S46 two or three were killed 

 from a flock near Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk ; and about the same 

 time the late H. Doubleday shot a bird in his garden at Epping. 

 Others have been observed in various parts of the L^nited Kingdom. 



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

 inhabited by a bird known as the White-winged Crossiull, Zoxia 

 leiicoptcra, which Mr. R. B. Sharjjc considers to be only entitled to 

 subspecific distinction : and after examining a good many speci 

 mens, including those in the British Museum, I agree with him that 



