PARROT CROSSBILL. 25 



According to M. Temminck, this bird is only an occa- 

 sional visitor either in Holland or France ; it inhabits Ger- 

 many, and the parts of the European continent still farther 

 north. M. Nilsson includes the species in his Birds of 

 Sweden, but mentions that specimens are more frequently 

 obtained in other parts of Scandinavia. Mr. W. C. Hewit- 

 son obtained two specimens in Norway, and it is recorded 

 by Brandt as found in Russia and Siberia. 



This species has not, that I am aware, been found in 

 North America, although from its high northern geogra- 

 phical range in Europe this might have been expected. It 

 is distinguished from the Common Crossbill by its greater 

 comparative length, its more bulky body, and the much 

 greater thickness of the beak at its base. 



A young bird of the year, in the possession of Mr. John 

 Leadbeater, had the beak of a blackish horn colour ; the 

 head, neck, lower part of the back, and all the under 

 surface of the body, greyish white, thickly streaked longi- 

 tudinally with dark greyish brown ; the rump, neck, and 

 breast, slightly tinged with yellow; wing-coverts dark 

 brown, both sets tipped with pale brown ; wings and tail- 

 feathers blackish brown, also tipped with pale brown ; legs 

 lead colour ; claws black. 



An older male, after his first moult, had the head, back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts, the throat, neck, and breast, 

 tile red ; darkest on the back, lightest on the rump ; the 

 feathers of the back and breast still retaining many of the 

 dusky brown streaks which mark the first plumage ; the 

 beak dark brown, the under mandible reddish brown at the 

 base ; the irides hazel ; wings, quill-feathers, and tail, uni- 

 form dark brown ; legs, toes, and claws, also dark brown. 



Mr. Bartlett's bird was a red male, in the moult when 

 killed, and all the new feathers then coming were of a 

 greenish yellow. 



