298 NOTES ON THE 



LOXIA LEUCOPTERA Gmelin. (522.) 

 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 



I found a few specimens of this species in Mr. Shroeder's 

 collection in St. Paul as long ago as 1865, and later in Mr. 

 Howling's of this city, but I have never met with it in the 

 flesh myself. All those I saw in either collection were said to 

 have been collected in this State. They were nearly all 

 mature birds and readily identified. 



Dr. Brown describes the nest as saucer- shaped, formed of 

 lichens, encased in spruce twigs, lined with hair and bark 

 shreds, four inches in diameter with a cavity an inch and a 

 half deep. The egg is pale blue, spattered at large end with 

 fine dots of black and ashy -lilac; taken at New Brunswick. 



Mr. M. Chamberlain, of St. Johns, New Brunswick, while 

 moose hunting in the third week in January, found himself 

 "face to face with a White-winged Crossbill on her nest, the 

 high bank of snow under me bringing my head about level 

 with the nest. * * * The nest was placed in a fork of one of 

 the main limbs of the tree and was composed externally of the 

 long, gray moss which grew in large patches on most of the 

 trees in this vicinity, and so much resembled these patches of 

 moss as to be difiicult of detection. In the inside was a lining 

 of softer moss, and between the lining and the exterior were 

 small twigs interlaced. In the nest were three eggs of a 

 bluish-white ground color, having dashes of red upon the 

 larger end." 



The bill so wondrously formed, as to appear deformed, does 

 not naturally differ in appearance from that of the Red 

 Crossbill. It is, as with the last mentioned species, used for 

 climbing like that of the parrot, as well as penetrating cones 

 of the pine and other coniferous trees for the nuts and seeds. 



It is reported as found in several different timbered sections 

 within our borders at long intervals, but with what reliability 

 I cannot be assured. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill greatly compressed, acute towards the point; male 

 carmine-red, tinged with dusky across the back; sides of body 

 under the wings streaked with brown; from middle of belly to 

 tail coverts whitish, the latter streaked with brown; scapulars, 

 wings and tail, black; broad bands on wings across the ends 

 of the greater and median coverts and spots on the ends of 

 the inner tertiaries, white. 



Length, 6.25; wing, 3.50; tail, 2.50. 



Habitat, northern North America. 



