268 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



in the fall. The Crossbill has a beautiful song of varied and pleasing 

 character, though not very powerful. "A series of somewhat goldfinch- 

 like trills and whistles, seldom of any duration and in any case far less 

 rich than that of the White- winged crossbill. It is more apt to keep up 

 a low twittering while feeding than that species. Common call notes are 

 a ' pip-pipe-pip-pip-pip ' somewhat like the peeping of young chickens, 

 and the much deeper ' pup-pup ' strikingly similar to one call of the Olive- 

 sided flycatcher. The last mentioned note is rarely or never uttered when 

 the bird is on the wing." (Gerald Thayer) 



Loxia leucoptera Gmelin 

 White-winged Crossbill 



Plate 77 



Loxia leucoptera Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1789. 1:844 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 183, fig. 145 

 A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 245. No. 522 

 leucoptera, from Gr., meaning white-winged 



Description. Shaped like the Red crossbill but slightly smaller and 

 the color more of a rosy red in this species, and the wings and tail black, 

 the former -with conspicuous white bars formed by the white tips of the middle 

 and greater wing coverts; the center of the belly nearly white. Female 

 and young: Olive green, yellowish on the rump, gray on the under parts, 

 mottled on the back and head with blackish. 



Length 6-6.2 inches; extent 10.18; wing 3.27; tail 2.4; bill .62; tarsus 

 .61. 



Distribution. The range of this species coincides closely with that 

 of the Red crossbill, but it is if anything more northerly in distribution 

 and does not wander so far south in winter, but occurs as a fairly common 

 winter visitant in this State, though more irregularly than the Red crossbill, 

 and as far as my records show is never found throughout the State in the 

 summertime. It breeds in the Adirondack forest according to Merriam, 

 but is very much less common in the summer than the Red crossbill. In 

 other parts of the State this species is only an erratic winter visitor, appear- 

 ing from the 2Qth of October to the I5th of November, and disappearing 



