392 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Genus LOXIA Linnaeus. (Page 382, pi. CVL, fig. 1.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — Adult males chiefly reddish, with dusky wings and tail, 

 the former sometimes marked with, white ; females plain olive, tinged with grayish 

 or yellowish, sometimes more or less streaked with darker; young light olive- 

 grayish, everywhere streaked with dusky. 



a 1 . Wings without white markings. Adult males dull red (usually brighter on 



rump), the winga and tail uniform dusky. Adult females olivaceous instead 



of red, the olive varying in shade from a grayish to a yellowish cast, often 



strongly tinged, in places, with the latter color. Young : Pale dingy grayish 



or light olive, paler beneath, everywhere (except on wings and tail) streaked 



with dusky. 



b\ Smaller: Length 5.50-6.25, wing 3.20-3.60 (average about 3.40), tail 1.85- 



2.40 (average about 2.15), culmen .50-.68 (average about .62), depth of 



bill .30-.40 (average about .35), tarsus .58-.68 (average about .63). Nest 



a rather flat structure, in coniferous trees, composed externally of spruce 



twigs, shreds of soft bark, etc., lined with horse-hair, fine rootlets, etc.; 



cavity about 2.50 across by 1.25 deep, external diameter about 4.00. 



Eggs usually 4, .75 X -57, pale greenish, spotted with various shades of 



brown, mixed with purplish gray. Sab. North America in general, but 



chiefly far northward, and east of Great Plains ; breeding, sporadically, 



south to Maryland and Virginia near coast, and to northern Georgia, 



Tennessee, and Kentucky in mountains. 



521. L. curvirostra minor (Brehm). American Crossbill. 

 6*. Larger : Length about 6.80-7.25, wing 3.85-4.10 (average nearly 4.00), tail 

 2.50-2.60 (2.54), culmen .72-.82 (.78), depth of bill .45-.50 (.49), tarsus 

 .65-.72 (.70), lower mandible averaging heavier, compared with the 

 upper, and colors brighter, than in L. minor. Hob. Southwestern United 

 States, from western Kansas, Colorado, and Arizona, south through 

 highlands of Mexico. 



521a. L. curvirostra stricklandi (Eidgw.). Mexican Crossbill 1 

 a?. Wing with two broad white bands (on tips of middle and greater coverts), the 

 two confluent at upper portion. Adult male : General color purplish red or 

 dull rosy, occasionally tinged with yellow or orange ; scapulars, wings, and 

 tail deep black, the former varied with white, as described above ; back 

 clouded with blackish. Adult female: Olive-greenish or grayish above, paler, 



1 A large majority of the specimens from western North America, north of Colorado and Arizona, and a 

 " sprinkling" of those from eastern North America (especially in New England and the British Provinces), are 

 intermediate hetween L. minor and L. stricldandi, as denned above. This connecting series, which in the north- 

 western portion of the United States is sufficiently uniform in its characters to be worthy of recognition as a 

 geographical race, has already been named by me L. curvirostra bendirei. (See Proc. Biol. Boo. Washington, 

 ii. 1884, 101 ; author's extras published April 28, 1884.) 



