196 TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 



the only difference of any moment between the European and 

 American forms consists in the darker scapulars of the latter ; to 

 which I may add that the red in the male has a pinker tint, and 

 the bill in both sexes is weaker. A hen bird ascribed to the 

 American form, and still in the Strickland Collection at Cambridge, 

 was killed near Worcester in 1838 ; a red male was picked up dead 

 at Exmouth on September 17th 1845 ; and a female, which lived in 

 Mr. Stevenson's aviary at Norwich till December 1874, was stated 

 by the dealer of whom it was purchased by Mr. J- H. Gurney jun. 

 in 1872, to have been captured — it is not said where — on the rig- 

 ging of the presumably American vessel " Beecher Stowe," which 

 arrived at Great Yarmouth in October 1870. Even in Greenland 

 only five occurrences are on record during nearly sixty years ; it has 

 not been known to visit Iceland or the Faeroes ; and I have Mr. 

 Giitke's authority for stating that it has never been obtained on 

 Heligoland. It is notorious that American White-winged Crossbills, 

 captured at sea comparatively near their own coast, have been 

 brought to the British Islands, and have then escaped or been let 

 loose ; and I do not consider that the species has a claim to a place 

 in the British list. 



A nest of the Two-barred Crossbill sent to Mr. Dresser, with the 

 parent birds, from the Archangel district, is described as rather 

 smaller and slighter than that of the. common Crossbill, while the 

 eggs are somewhat darker in colour and less in size. In food and 

 habits this bird resembles its congener, but its song being of a 

 superior quality, it is a greater favourite as a cage-bird. 



Adult male : head, neck, mantle and rump carmine-red, slightly 

 mottled, owing to the protrusion of the black bases of the feathers ; 

 wings black, with white tips to the inner secondaries, and broad 

 pinkish-white edges to the greater and median wing-coverts ; 

 tail-feathers brownish-black, narrowly edged with reddish-white ; 

 under parts carmine-red, which fades into white on the belly ; bill 

 horn-colour, lighter on the lower mandible; legs dull brown. 

 Length 6"25 in. ; wing 37 in. In less mature birds the pink tinge 

 on the wing-bands is wanting, and the flanks are striated. Female : 

 upper parts greenish-grey, with a yellow tint, and dusky-brown 

 streaks ; rump pale yellow ; under parts greyish-yellow, paler on 

 the throat and abdomen, and streaked with dusky-brown. Young 

 bird in August : much striated on a greyish ground, with hardly any 

 trace of yellow ; white upper wing-bar very narrow ; quills and tail- 

 feathers distinctlv margined with greenish-white. 



