484 



NOKTII AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Loxia curvirostra var. americana, Bairp. 



BED CBOSSBIIL. 



Curvirostra americana, WiLS. Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 44, 1)1. .vxxi, f. 1, 2. — Baird, Birds N. 

 Am. 1858, 426. — C(»oi'Eii & Sicklky, 198. — D.vli, & Banm.«<if,R, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 

 1869, 281 (Alaska). —Cooi'F.i:, Orn. Cal. I, 148.— Samuels, 291. Lu'i<i americana, 

 l\os. List, 18o8. — Bon. k Sciilkokl, Mon. Loxious, .'», tab. vi. — Nkwukimiy, Zoul. 

 California an.l Oivj^cn lioutr, P. K. K. lU-p. VI, iv, 18:.7, 87. — Bon. & Sciilfgkl, 

 Mon. Lux. it, ]il. vi. Loxia curvirostra, FoiusTKit, Phil. Trans. LXIl, 1772, No. 23. 

 AVD. Biog. II, 1834, .')r.9 ; V, 511, i»l. cxcvii. — In. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 186, pi. cc. 

 *' Loxia pusilla, iLLlGiAi" (Vi\K). '' Loxia fusca, Vi El LLoi" {B\>.). 



Sp. Ciiak. Old male dull red (the shade diflerinpr in the specimen, sometimes brick-red, 

 sometimes vermilion, etc.) ; darkest across the back ; wings and tail dark blackish- 

 brown. Yonug male yellowish. Female 

 dull greenish-olive a'^ove, each feather with 

 a dusky centre ; rump and crown bright 

 greenish-yellow. Beneath grayish; tinged, 

 especially on the sides of the body, with 

 greenish-yellow. Fo^//?// olive above; whit- 

 ish beneath, conspicuously streaked above 

 and below with blackish. Male about G 

 inches; wing, 3..30; tail, 2.25. 



Had. Northern America generally, com- 

 ing southwarrl in winter. Resident in the 

 Alleghany and Rocky Mountains. 



Tliere are considerable differences 

 both in color and size, especially of 

 bill, in specimens from various parts 

 of North America, and to a less deu^ree from the same locality. While 

 those of the Atlantic and Pacific coast have bills of miicli th.e same size, in 

 skins from tlie mountains of California this member is much stouter ; in 

 this diameter ap]>roachin,«,' the L. mviicana of Strickland, 

 in which the bill presents its maximum of tlie North 

 American form. 



It would not probably be far out of the way to consider 

 the European and all the American common Crossbills as 

 the same s|)ecies, differing; only as races, and perliaps in- 

 cluding L. himahti/ana, which is smaller even than ameri- 

 cami. 



AVe have not observed any American Crossbills witli two 

 reddish Iwnds across the wini^-co verts, corresponding to the 

 variety ruhrifasciata of Europe. 



L. jit/fwpsUfanis of Euroj)e is much the largest of all the 

 species, measuring seven incht\s in h^i^^th, and with the bill 

 seven lines hi^h at l)ase. 



Loxia americana. 



California. 



