170 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 



with very few exceptions, is shorter than the fifth. In the same manner the measurements best 

 agree with those cf P. major. The average length oi' the tails of twenty-nine females was fouucl 

 by Mr. Dybowsky to be 2.85 inches (72 mm.). The wing being 3.5S inch (HO mm.) or precisely 

 the same numbers which 1 have given above. On the other hand the specimen agrees so closely 

 with the colors of the female of cineracea that there can be no doubt but that it is the female of 

 cineracea. The differences noted above are only such as also occur in occasional female individuals 

 of cineracea. (See E. v. Homeyer, Jour, fur Ornith, 1879, p. 178.) 



There are also two more marks by which Professor Laird's bird agree with P. cineracea, for it 

 lacks the red spot on the innermost tertial. The spot in that bird being gray, with a bluish-black 

 spot at the tip, and has the tips of the greater wing-coverts gray and not white. It may, however, 

 be well to state that occasional individuals of P. major also lack the red spot on the inner tertial. 

 (See Dybowsky and v. Homeyer, 1. c). 



The white on the outer tail-feather is rather large and thus agrees with the majority of indi- 

 viduals of cineracea. P.cassini has nothing to do with P. oriental-is Tem. (=griseiventris Lafrsn). 

 This is a smaller bird and much nearer allied to the small European form as will be understood 

 from the following comparison which 1 had the opportunity of making in the museum of the Phil- 

 adelphia Academy of Nat. Sciences: 



The specimens of Pyrrhula orientalis Temm. here described are a male and a female, numbered 

 777 in the Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., and were obtained from Japan. 



The male of P. orientalis Temm. is especially distinguishable from the male of P. europwa (the 

 small species) by the gray of the back being less pure, it being strongly tinged with rose-red; also 

 by the black cap extending less farther posteriorly. The color of the throat and cheeks is purer 

 and more glossy rose-red, while the breast and remaining under parts are strongly shaded with 

 gray. The red color extends to the crissum without becoming less intense. The tips of the greater 

 coverts are pure gray, not white or whitish. The innermost tertial has no red spot. Measurements 

 of the male give: Culmen, .40; wing, 3.30; tail feathers, 2.40; tarsus, .64 iuch. 



The female of orientalis is distinguishable from the female europwa in the same manner as the 

 male by the gray tips on the greater wing-coverts and wanting the red spot on the inner tertial. 

 The back is more tinged with brown, duller and more reddish than in any of the four females of 

 europcea now before me, in which the shade of gray in europcea is more fulvous, the cap somewhat 

 shorter, the auriculars, chin, and throat more reddish — just the same parts which in the male are 

 more rosy. Measurements of the female give: Culmen, .37; wing, 3.35; tail feathers, 2.44; tarsus, 

 .70 inch. 



The synouomy of P. cassini will, consequently, stand as follows: 



183L — Pyrrhula rub icilla Pall. Zoogr. Russo-Asiat., II, p. 7 ( ? partim.). 



1869. — Pyrrhula coccinea var. cassinii Laird, Trans. Chic. Acad., I, 1869, p. 316. 



1ST '1.— Pyrrhula cassini Tristr., Ibis, 1871, p. 231. 



1S72. — Pyrrhula cineracea Cab., Jour, iur Ornith., 1872, p. 316. 



Figures. Transactions Chic, Acad., I, 1869, PI. XXIX; Cab. Jour. f. Orn., 1874, PI. I." 



While in Alaska I made strenuous endeavors to obtain specimens of P. cassini Baird, but 

 failed to procure them. The question of the relationship of the species referred to may, however 

 be considered as settled, as Dr. L. Stejneger, since he wrote the above, has had the opportunity of 

 comparing Laird's type of cassini with an undoubted specimen of cineracea, and finds his identifi- 

 cation to be correct. 



521. LoxiA curvirostra minor (Erehm). American Crossbill. 



I had the good fortune to obtain a specimen of the American Crossbill at Saint Michael's on 

 August 4, 1875. It was sitting on a weed near the base of the sun-dial, back of the inclosure. 



Measurements of the fresh specimen were as follows: 5.75 by 10 by 3.25 by 2. Iris black, feet 

 and bill dusky, male, adult. 



This bird is extremely rare in this locality, as some natives to whom I showed it declared it to 

 be the first one they had ever seen. 



This species was not obtained by Messrs. Dall and Eaunister in the Yukon Territory. 



This is the only individual ever obtained north of Sitka, nearly 600 miles further south than 

 Saint Michael's. 



