204 TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 
The forests of America, from Alaska to Labrador, are inhabited 
by a bird known as the White-winged Crossbill, Zoxza deucopiera, 
which Dr. Sharpe considers to be only entitled to subspecific 
distinction ; and after examining many specimens, including those 
in the British Museum, I agree with him that the only difference of 
any moment between the European and American forms consists in 
the darker scapulars of the latter; to which I may add that the 
red in the male has a pinker tint, and the bill in both sexes is 
weaker. A hen, ascribed to the American form, in the Strickland 
Collection at Cambridge, was killed near Worcester in 1838; a red 
male was picked up dead at Exmouth on September 17th 1845 ; 
and a female, which lived in the late Mr. Stevenson’s aviary at 
Norwich till December 1874, was stated by the dealer of whom it 
was purchased by Mr. J. H. Gurney to have been captured—it was 
not said where—on the rigging of the vessel “‘ Beecher Stowe,” which 
arrived at Great Yarmouth in October 1870. Even from Greenland 
only five occurrences are on record during nearly sixty years, and 
none from Iceland or the Feroes. As it is notorious that American 
White-winged Crossbills, captured at sea comparatively near their 
own coast, have been brought to the British Islands and have then 
escaped or been liberated, I do not consider that a claim has been 
made out to a place in the British list. 
A nest of the Two-barred Crossbill sent to Mr. Dresser, with the 
parent birds, from the Archangel district, is described as rather 
smaller and slighter than that of the Common Crossbill, while the 
eggs are somewhat darker in colour and less in size. In food and 
habits this bird resembles its congener, but its song being of a 
superior quality, it is a greater favourite as a cage-bird. 
Adult male: head, neck, mantle and rump carmine-red, slightly 
mottled with black; wings black, with white tips to the inner 
secondaries, and broad pinkish-white edges to the greater and 
median wing-coverts ; tail-feathers brownish-black, narrowly edged 
with reddish-white; under parts carmine red, which fades into 
white on the belly ; bill horn-colour, lighter on the lower mandible ; 
legs dull brown. Length 6°25 in.; wing 37 in. In less mature 
birds the pink tinge on the wing-bands is wanting, and the flanks are 
striated. Female: upper parts greenish-grey, with a yellow tint, and 
dusky-brown streaks ; rump pale yellow ; under parts greyish-yellow, 
paler on the throat and abdomen, and streaked with dusky-brown. 
Young bird in August: much striated on a greyish ground, with 
hardly any tinge of yellow; white upper wing-bar very narrow; 
quills and tail-feathers distinctly margined with greenish-white. 
