THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 411 



tending towards L. bifasciata, for the bars even in extreme cases 

 hardly reach the breadth shown in Naumann's bird. It is singular 

 that among the hundreds of Crossbills which visited Heligoland in 

 18S7, there was not a single individual which displayed an indica- 

 tion of this particular wing-marking, nor did I meet with any such 

 among the less numerous visitors of 1879. 



The flights of Common Crossbills which formerly used to visit 

 Heligoland occurred almost invariably only in August, and, what is 

 very singular, almost always in stormy weather with heavy rain. 

 Contrary to the behaviour of other visitors to the island, these 

 birds in most cases stayed for several days, and, by the continuous 

 and loud utterances of their call-note, induced other individuals of 

 their species, which might otherwise have simply passed across the 

 island, to alight and stay. 



The Crossbill is a resident breeding species throughout the whole 

 of central Europe and Asia, as far north as coniferous forests extend. 

 In the south the bird has been found nesting as far as the pine 

 forests of the mountains of Greece, Spain, and even of the Balearic 

 Islands. 



212. Two-barred Crossbill [ZWEIBINDIGEK KREUZSCHNABEL]. 

 LOXIA BIFASCIATA, C. L. Brehm. 



Heligolandish : Witt-jiikked Borrfmk= White-winged Crossbill. 



Loxia leucoptera. Naumann, xiii. ; Blasius, Nachtrage, 188, PI. 385, 



Figs, i, 2, 3. 



Two-barred Crossbill. Dresser, iv. 141. 

 Bec-croise leucoptcre. Temminck, Manuel, iii. 243. 



One or two examples of the present two-barred species used to 

 occur among every flock of Common Crossbills which formerly visited 

 this island. A red male and a grey female in my collection date 

 back to that period : since I obtained these, forty years have passed, 

 and it is more than twenty years since the last solitary example 

 of the species was seen here. In the present year (1889), however, 

 this beautiful Crossbill has occurred more frequently than on 

 any previous occasion. On the 14th of August I obtained a beauti- 

 ful scarlet-red male and an old female. On the 1st, 16th, 18th, 

 20th, and 22nd of September, from two, five, up to eight males and 

 females were seen daily, accompanied by larger numbers of the 

 common species ; but among all these only one bird in the grey-and- 

 black-striped early dress. For my collection I stuffed three fine 

 red old males, a younger yellow male, two old females, and the 

 young bird already mentioned. A large number were consigned 



