FINCHES, SPARROWS 



(522) Loxia leucoptera Gmel. 



(Gr., white wing). 



WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 

 Mandibles crossed. Ad. d' — Plum- 

 age as shown by the bird on the right; 

 light rosy-red; wings and tail black- 

 ish; lesser wing coverts and tips of 

 greater ones white; feathers on the 

 back with visible dusky centres. Ad. 

 9 — As shown by the left-hand bird ; 

 streaked dusky and gray; yellow on 

 the rump, crown, and breast; wings 

 as on the cf. L., 6.00; W., 3.00; 

 T., 2.25. Nest — Of twigs and bark, 

 lined with moss and hair; in ever- 

 greens in deep forests. 



Range — Breeds in boreal zones 

 throughout Canada and south to 

 N. Y., N. H., and Me. Very erratic 

 in migrations; south casually to N. 

 Car., Ohio, Col., and Ore. 



True, they are living creatures, but so is the mosquito that 

 we crush without a thought when it annoys us, and the 

 one is as much a pest as the other. 



CROSSBILLS are of more than passing interest because 

 of the manner in which both mandibles are twisted at the 

 tips so that, when closed, they lap by or cross one another. 

 This construction is presumed to have some advantages in 

 the scaling of seeds from cones, and it is upon these seeds 

 that they live almost exclusively. No birds are more 

 uncertain in their movements than these, especially the 

 White-winged variety. They follow their food supply, 

 and as the crop of cones may be good one year and poor 

 another, so these birds may put in an appearance one season 

 and then be absent the following. 



They come suddenly and they leave the same way. A 

 shower of cone scales may cause us to glance up and see the 

 dull red or yellowish acrobats clinging to the pendent cones 

 in all conceivable positions, all busily working. Sometimes 

 they utter their musical, piping whistles while feeding, but 



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