FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 339 
being very conspicuous, and almost pure white. All these 
facts conspire to favour our opinion. In this state, the bird is 
rare, as might be expected, and has not before been noticed 
by any naturalist: we have not represented it, only that we 
might not multiply figures of the same species. 
The very young male before assuming the red, at the age 
of one year, exactly resembles the female, being only more 
greyish, and less tinged with olive, and having the rump green- 
ish yellow, instead of yellow. 
The four above-described states of plumage are selected 
from a number of specimens shot on the same day and out of 
the same flock. The changes of these birds must still rank 
among the unexplained phenomena of natural history. An 
illustration might be attempted, by supposing a double moult 
to take place in the birds of this genus; but besides that we 
ought to be cautious in admitting an hypothesis like this, not 
founded on observation, it would be entirely untenable in the 
present instance, from the fact that all the variations of plu- 
mage are found at the same period of the year ; thus proving 
that age, and of course sex, but not season, produce these 
changes ; and we must provisionally admit that, contrary to 
what takes place in all other birds, these (the crossbills), 
together with the pine bullfinches, lose, instead of acquiring, 
briiliancy of colours as they advance in age. 
This species inhabits, during summer, the remotest regions 
of North America, and it is therefore extraordinary that it 
should not have been found in the analogous climates of the 
old continent. In this, its range is widely extended, as we 
can trace it from Labrador westward to Fort de la Fourche, 
in latitude 56°, the borders of Peace river, and Montague 
island on the north-west coast, where it was found by Dixon. 
Round Hudson’s Bay it is common and well known, probably 
extending far to the north-west, as Mackenzie appears to allude 
to it when speaking of the only land bird found in the desolate 
regions he was exploring, which enlivened, with its agreeable 
notes, the deep and silent forests of those frozen tracts. It 
