GROSBEAKS, FINCHES, SPARROWS: Family Fringillidae [551] 



White-winged Crossbill: 



Loxia leucoptera Gmelin 



DESCRIPTION. Similar to the Sitka Crossbill but with white bars on the wings. 

 The red a brighter color, especially on the rump in the males. Si%e: Length 6.00- 

 6.10. Nest and eggs: Same as for other crossbills. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds in the Boreal zone from the limit of trees in north- 

 west Alaska, northern Mackenzie, northern Manitoba and northern Quebec south 

 to southern British Columbia and Mt. Rainier, Washington, southern Alberta to 

 New York, New Hampshire, Maine, and Nova Scotia. In Oregon: Occurs only as 

 a straggler. 



THE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL is known as a bird of Oregon from the 

 record of Alden H. Miller, who collected two males and saw the third in 

 the firs and spruces of a subalpine meadow on the upper Lostine River 

 in Wallowa County on July 12., 1938. There is also a sight record by 

 Anthony (1886) in Washington County. 



Green-tailed Towhee: 



Oberholseria chlorura (Audubon) 



DESCRIPTION. "Bill small, conical; wing rather long and pointed; tail long, 

 rounded; tarsus long, nearly a third the length of wing; hind claw longer than its 

 toe. (Structurally intermediate between Zonotrichia and Pipilo.} Adult male: top 

 of head bright rufous; throat white; upper parts olive gray, becoming bright olive green 

 on wings and tail; malar stripe and middle of belly white; edge of wing, under wing 

 coverts, and axillars bright yellow. Adult female: usually slightly duller. Young: 

 olive grayish, streaked with dusky; lower parts dingy white, chest and sides streaked 

 with dusky; wings and tail like adults, but wing bars brownish buffy. Male: 

 length (skins) 6.11-7.05, wing 3.01-3.2.8, tail 3.14-3.43, bill .48-.5I. Female: 

 length (skins) 6.51-7.10, wing 1.80-3.10, tail i. 93-3. 33, bill .45-. 51." (Bailey) 

 Nest: On or near the ground in small bushes, woven of grass and stems and lined 

 with hair. Eggs: 4, whitish, speckled with reddish brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from central Oregon and south-central Montana to 

 southern California, southeastern New Mexico, and central-west Texas. Winters 

 south into Mexico. In Oregon: Common summer resident of edge of yellow-pine 

 districts of eastern Oregon westward to summit of Cascades and in southern Oregon 

 through higher parts of Siskiyous, at least to vicinity of Oregon Mountain, near 

 where Redwood Highway crosses summit. 



THE GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE is a bird of the rank sagebrush of the higher 

 valleys and is usually found most abundantly where the yellow pine and 

 sagebrush meet and intermingle. It is, however, common in the Steens 

 Mountains and similar desert ranges where there is no yellow pine and 

 extends its range westward to and beyond the summit of the Cascades. 

 Since Bendire (1877) fi rst listed the bird from Oregon it has attracted the 

 attention of every ornithologist to visit its haunts. We have found it 

 commonly in Malheur, Harney, Lake, Klamath, Deschutes, Crook, Baker, 

 Grant, and Wheeler Counties, and less frequently in Lane, Jackson, 



