FRINGILLIDH, FINCHES, ETC.—GEN. 59. 129 
** Adult g with the red partly in definite areas, the belly streaked, the edging 
of the wings whitish. 
Crimson-fronted Finch. House Finch. Burion. 2 with the forehead 
and a line over the eye, the rump, and the chin, throat and breast, crimson ; 
other upper parts brown, streaked with darker, and marked with dull red, 
and other under parts white or whitish, streaked with dusky ; wings and tail 
dusky with slight whitish edgings and cross bars. The changes of plumage 
are parallel with those of C. purpureus, but the species may easily be dis- 
tinguished in any plumage by its smaller size, with relatively longer wings 
and tail, these members being absolutely as long or nearly as long as in 
purpureus; the tail barely or not forked ; and especially by the much shorter 
and more inflated bill, which is almost exactly as represented in the fore- 
going figure of Pyrrhula cassinii. Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, U. S., 
avery abundant species in the towns and gardens of New Mexico, Arizona 
and California, where it is as familiar as the European Sparrow has become 
in many of our large eastern cities ; nests about the houses; a pleasant song- 
Sete AUD. 1 Udo. 19s bps 4155 Coor., 156. . 3 . FRONTADIS. 
59. Genus CURVIROSTRA Scopoli. 
*.* Distinguished from all other birds by the falcate mandibles with crossed 
points. Nasal ruff conspicuous; wings long, pointed; tail short, forked; feet 
strong. Sexes dissimilar; g some shade of red, nearly uniform, with dusky wings 
and tail; @ brownish or olivaceous, more or less streaked, head and rump 
frequently washed with brownish-yellow ; young like the 9. Irregularly migratory, 
according to exigencies of the weath- 
er, eminently gregarious, and feed 
principally on pine seeds, which they 
skilfully husk out of the cones with 
their singular bill. Our two species 
inhabit the northern parts of Amer- 
ica, coming southward in flocks in 
the fall; but they are also resident in 
northern and mountainous pine-clad 
parts of the United States, where 
they sometimes breed in winter. 
White-winged Crossbill. Wings 
in both sexes with two conspicu- 
ous white bars; @ rosy red, 9 
brownish-olive, streaked and speckled with dusky, the rump saffron; about 
6; wing 34; tail 24. Wis. iv, 48, pl. 31, f.3; Aup., iii, 190, pl. 201; 
are Oe res ae ere Cay ats ik aa eet tt $e) a. ~EEUCOPTERA’ 
Red Crossbill. Common Crossbill. (Puiatr m, figs. 13, 14, 15, 13a, 
14a, 15a.) Wings blackish, unmarked; ¢ bricky red; 9 as in lewcoptera, 
but wings plain. Whuus., iv, 44, pl. 31, f. 1,2; Aup., iii, 186, pl. 200; 
ere mOOOr mals.) Ghee SOA 5 Rin hi tos vy a AMERIGANAS 
Fic, 76. WlLite-winged Crossbill. 
Var. mexicana. Similar to the last; bill large, about ? of an inch long. Moun- 
KRY TO N. A. BIRDS. 17 
