THE TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 47 



Family FRINGILLID&. Subfamily FRINGILLIN/E. 



THE TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 



Loxia bi/asciata, C. L- BREHM. 



HOWARD SAUNDERS gives the following account of the distribution of 

 this species, and its claims to be regarded as British seem to be well 

 supported : It " inhabits the coniferous forests of Northern Russia, and Siberia, 

 as far as the Pacific ; wandering in autumn and winter to South Sweden, Denmark, 

 Heligoland, North Germany, Holland, Belgium, the North of France, North Italy, 

 Austria, and Poland. In our Islands the first recorded specimen was obtained near 

 Belfast, Ireland, on May nth, 1802, and in July or August, 1868, a second was 

 obtained in co. Dublin. A few years prior to 1843, one was killed in Cornwall ; 

 in the autumn of 1845, a flock appeared in the neighbourhood of Brampton, in 

 Cumberland, and ten or eleven were shot, six of them being in female plumage ; 

 in May, 1846, two or three were killed from a flock near Bury St. Edmund's, 

 Suffolk ; and about the same time the late H. Doubleday shot a bird in his garden 

 at Epping. Others have been observed in various parts of the United Kingdom." 

 (Manual of British Birds, p. 195). 



The adult male has the feathers of the upper surface of a rose-madder tint, 

 browner on the back, and inclining to carmine on the rump, the bases of the 

 feathers broadly black ; the wings are black, the greater and median coverts being 

 broadly tipped with white ; the inner secondaries edged with white at their extrem- 

 ities ; tail brownish-black, with rosy white edges to the feathers ; under surface 

 rose-madder, whitish on the belly, becoming quite white towards the vent ; beak 

 and feet horn-brown ; iris hazel. The female above is greenish-grey, washed with 

 yellow, and streaked with brown ; the rump is yellow ; under parts sordid yellow, 

 streaked with brown ; the throat and abdomen paler. The young bird is distinctly 

 greyer than the female, more prominently streaked, with narrower tips to the 

 .median coverts; the flights and tail-feathers with well-defined greenish-white 

 margins. 



The American form of this species (known as the " White- winged Crossbill") 

 has, on several occasions, been obtained upon our shores; but, considering the 

 numbers of American Passeres imported yearly to this country, it would be indeed 



