144 TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 



straggler; and from whence it has come, whether from the 

 American continent, across the wide and stormy Atlantic by 

 some instinctively-discovered 'Xorth-west Passage,' or from 

 the equally wild regions of the Caucasian range by some 

 overland transit, is a question which we cannot answer, and 

 must accordingly be content to leave in the uncertain state 

 in which it propounds itself to our inquiry. Certainly, how- 

 ever, it would appear the most natural, that that journey, 

 the land one, which offers a halting-place, when required, to 

 the weary traveller, should be the one adopted by the fragile 

 bird. Uncertain too, as are the periods, so are also doubtless 

 the causes of its migrations, if migrations they may be 

 called, wanderings rather, instigated by some motive, which, 

 if we knew, might commend itself at once to our reason as 

 the natural 'one, or by some mysterious and hidden impulse, 

 whose capricious and wayward tendency we could by no 

 'means fathom the secret of, even if we had ascertained that 

 it was by it that its movements were directed. 



Male; length, from six inches and a quarter to a little 

 over seven; the bill is wider at the base than that of the 

 American White- winged Crossbill; iris, hazel; head and crown, 

 pale dull red; neck behind and nape, pale red mixed with 

 grey; chin, throat, and breast above, pale dull red with a 

 mixture of yellow; below greyish white, darker on the sides; 

 the back is dusky red on the middle part, and bright reddish 

 yellow on the lower; the sides do not assume the black tint 

 which distinguishes the American White-winged Crossbill. 



The wings are shorter than in the Common Crossbill; the 

 greater and lesser wing coverts have two broad white bands 

 across them, occupying the tips of those feathers; primaries, 

 secondaries, and tertiaries, deep brown, the smaller feathers 

 tinged with dull red; the tertiaries are also tipped with 

 white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, brownish grey. 

 The tail is longer than in the Common Crossbill; legs and 

 toes, purple brown; the toes are also shorter than in the 

 Common Crossbill. 



