346 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



is often scarcely larger than that of the common bird, but 

 has always a bolder character. In the year 1863, I took 

 above thirty-five nests of the common crossbill in our forest, 

 but not one of the parrot crossbill. In the spring of 1864, 

 we never saw a specimen of either in our woods, until 

 the end of May. We rarely see any with us in the summer, 

 even in those years when they breed with us. No nest is 

 easier to find, for all the male seems to have to do with the 

 work of building is to sit on the top of a pine and sing, 

 thus betraying the locality of the nest. 



Although they do not breed in colonies, you are sure to 

 find more than one nest in the same district, and they have 

 their favourite localities, where they breed year after 

 year. 



149. LOXIA BIFASCIATA, Nilss. Bandel Korsnabb. The 

 Two-barred Crossbill. D. F. 



I do not believe it is very clear which of the two species 

 of white-winged crossbill we have in the north. Nilsson 

 describes only one, which he calls Loxia bifasciata, and in 

 his synonymes adds Crucirostra bifasciata, Brehm. Wright 

 gives it the synonym e of Loxia leucoptera, Tern., but he 

 adds the Swedish name of Bandel Korsnabb, thus clearly 

 identifying the Finland bird with Nilsson' s L. bifasciata. 

 Kjarbolling applies both of the synonymes, 0. bifasciata, 

 Brehm, and Crucirostra leucoptera, Wilson, to the Danish 

 bird. Morris gives Nilsson' s synonyme of L. bifasciata to 

 the two-barred crossbill ; but in describing the American 

 white-winged crossbill (which M. de Selys Longchamps 

 appears to have decided as a different species), he says that 

 " a few are occasionally seen in Sweden." Now it appears 

 to me that it is not at all clear which we have in the north, 

 and whether or not we have both species (if indeed they can 

 be considered distinct), or only one. 



I never met with the bird in my life here, although I 

 have more than once killed the common crossbill with two 

 pale rose red bands over the wing, which Brehrn, I be- 

 lieve, calls the Loxia rubrifasdata, but I do not think he 

 makes it a distinct species. 



