NOVITATES ZOOIOGIOAB XXV. 1918. 13 



This bird is a very beautiful aberration of the Common Crossbill, with wide 

 pale pink bars across the wing-coverts. Dresser and Bianchi thought this was 

 a " good species," but the Brehm Collection alone should convince ornitholo- 

 gists that this is not the case. On the back of a label on the type specimen 

 Bianchi wrote : " Einziger wirklicher Loxia rubrifasciata ! V. Bianchi." This 

 remark is amusing, and would require an explanation what Dr. Bianchi does 

 with the " unwirklichen " rubrifasciata in the Brehm Collection? Does he 

 look upon them as hybrids ? It is quite Linnaean and Brehmian, to treat 

 as species any bird different from another, without 'admitting individual 

 variation, which is so flagrant among the Crossbills, and without consideration 

 of distribution ; but we should have advanced since the great times of Linnaeus 

 and Brehm ! 



27. Cracirostra erythroptera Brehm = Loxia curvirostra curvirostra. 



Crucirostra erythroptera Brehm, Naumannia, 1853. pp. 199. 200 (Harz and Renthendorf). 



Types : " S biennis " Harz iii. 1848, Uved till August, " <J media aetate " 

 caught Harz, l.iv. 1851, died, 20. v. 1851. 



These birds have wing-bars of a greenish yeUow colour, in . the second 

 specimen with a pink tinge. They might just as glibly be pronounced to belong 

 to another species as rubrifasciata, but are clearly aberrant curvirostra. 

 Interesting are Brehm's experiments, described on p. 200, how he puUed 

 out the wing-coverts forming the wing-bars, and they came out again with 

 greenish tips as before. It shows that Brehm himself had doubts about his 

 " species," but it does not prove that it is one ! 



*29. Crucirostra biiasciata Brehm = Loxia leucoptera bifasciata. 

 Crucirostra bifasciata Brehm, Ornis, iii. p. 85 (1827 — Thiiringer Wald und Wien). 



The description in Ornis iii. appeared first. Another description came 

 out in Isis, 1827. p. 714, but the one in the Ornis must have been earlier, as 

 it was fully quoted in Isis, 1827. p. 717. 



Type : <5 Thiiringer Wald, 10. viii. 1826. 



29. Crucirostra orientalis Brehm = Loxia leucoptera bifasciata. 



Crucirostra orientalis Brehm, Naumannia, 1853. p. 251. (The author describes a male caught near 

 Vienna, 15. xi. 1826, but wrongly concludes that it inhabits the Himalaya.) 



Type : S ad., near Vienna, 15. xi. 1826. 



30. Crucirostra assimilis Brehm = Loxia leucoptera bifasciata. 



Crucirostra assimilis Brehm, Naumannia, 1853. p. 253. (Only one specimen, a $ in juvenile plum- 

 age, caught 12. vii. 1846 near Roda, died in cage, 4. ix. 1846, without having moulted.)* 



Type : see above. 



* The following additions must be made on p. 123 of vol. i. of my Vog. pal. Fauna : 



The first description of Crucirostra trifasciata appeared in Isis, 1845. p. 251 ! The descrip- 

 tion was made from a caged bii;d. Type not in the collection, probably never preserved. 



To the synonyms must be added : 



Crucirostra latifasciata Brehm, Isis, 1845. p. 263 (description of a bird from Thuringia that 

 lived eight years in cage. Type not in collection). 



