137 



LOXIA LEUCOPTEKA. 



(WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.) 



White-winged Crossbill, Lath. Syn. ii. pt. i. p. 108 (1783). 



Loxia leucoptera, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 845 (1788, ex Lath.). 



Loxia falcirostra, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 371 (1790). 



Curvirostra leucoptera (Gm.), Wils". Am. Orn. iv. p. 48, pi. 31. fig. 3 (1811). 



Crucirostra leucoptera (Gm.), C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1837, p. 720. 



Figurce notabiles. 



Wils. Am. Orn. pi. 31. fig. 3; Audubon, B. Am. pi. 201; Bp. & Schl. Mon. Lox. pi. 9; 

 Gould, B. of G. Brit. iii. pi. 48. 



<3 ad. Loxia bifasciata similis sed magis punice rufus, dorsi plumis et tectricibus alarum superioribus nigris 

 vix rufescenti marginatis : alis et cauda, sicut in Loxid bifasciatd picturatis sed hac indistincte margi- 

 nal, rostro graciliore. 



$ ad. Loxia bifasciata similis sed rostro graciliore. 



Adult Male (Wisconsin) . Resembles the male of Loxia bifasciata ; but the red coloration is more of a pome- 

 granite-red, the dorsal feathers and the lesser wing-coverts are black with but slight reddish edgings, 

 tail a trifle less forked ; wings and tail coloured as in Loxia bifasciata, but the latter has scarcely any 

 light margins ; bill much slighter. Total length about 6 inches, culmen 08, height of bill at hase 0-3, 

 wing 3'4, tail 2-55, tarsus - 6, hind toe with claw - 58. 



Adult Female. Resembles the female of L. bifasciata in coloration. 



Obs. As the changes of plumage are similar in the present species to what they are in L. bifasciata, I have 

 not deemed it necessary to describe them. The female and young of the two species are only to be 

 recognized by difference in measurements. 



This form of White-winged Crossbill, which has been so frequently confused with Loxia bifasciata, 

 inhabits North America, and is only known as a rare straggler to Great Britain, never having, so 

 far as I can ascertain, been known to occur elsewhere in Europe, except perhaps in Heligoland. 



The earliest recorded instance of its capture in Great Britain is that recorded by Strickland 

 of a female which was killed near Worcester in 1838, and is still in the Strickland collection in 

 Cambridge. The second occurrence was that of a male in red plumage exhibited at a meeting 

 of the Zoological Society on the 23rd September, 1845, by Mr. E. B. Fitton, who said he had 

 found it dead and partly covered with wet sand in a crevice of some loose rocks on the shore at 

 Exmouth on the 17th September, the wind being at the time south-west, and westerly gales 

 having prevailed for some days. Professor Newton mentions that he examined this bird in the 

 flesb. A third was bought alive in October 1872 by Mr. J. H. Gurney of a man at Great 



