LOXIA LEUCOPTERA, Gmei. 
American White-wing-ed Crossbill. 
Loxia leucoptera, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 844. 
falcirostra, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 371. 
Curvirostra leucoptera, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iv. p. 48, pi. xxxi. fig. 3, young male. 
The Gulf-stream has doubtless much to do with the appearance of many American birds on our shores ; for 
when a straggler is once within its influence, it is borne along not unwillingly, since it finds within a distance 
of every five square miles large masses of floating sea-weeds and other substances upon which it may rest, 
and where it may procure an abundance of Mollusks, small Crustaceans, &c., upon which to subsist. 
In the present instance I have departed from my plan of not figuring those American species which, 
having been accidentally drawn across the Atlantic, have found shelter in our island. The Belted King- 
fisher {Ceryle alcyoii), American Cuckoo {Coccyzus americanus), and Red-winged Starling {Agelaius phceni- 
ceus) have no more connexion with our fauna than the Australian Cereopsis Goose ; even in America these 
birds more properly belong to the south than the north ; and those examples which have arrived here have 
doubtless been driven to sea during their migration, or by some accidental cause which cannot be 
ascertained. The American AAhite-winged Crossbill has, however, in my opinion, certain claims to be 
figured in the ‘ Birds of Great Britain.’ It is a species which, in the New World, goes further north than any 
other insessorial bird, except the Wheatear, Redpolls, Pine Grosbeak, Snow and Lapland Buntings — certainly 
as far as any species of Pine is known to exist, — and it is consequently more likely now and then to extend its 
visits to that portion of the Old World which lies within the Arctic Circle than either of the comparatively 
southern species above referred to ; moreover it has undoubtedly been found in our island — a fact I have 
verified by an examination of the specimen mentioned by Mr. Yarrell as having been taken in Devonshire ; 
and it has usually been confounded with the species called Loxia bifasciata, the differences between the two 
being only known to professed ornithologists. For all these reasons, a representation of it cannot fail to be 
of service. 
The occurrence of the specimen above alluded to, which is now in the possession of Mr. Van Voorst, is 
thus recorded in the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1845, p. 91 : — “ September 23. Edward 
Fitton, Esq., exhibited to the meeting a fine male specimen of the White-winged CYO?>s\n[\(Lnxia leucoptera^, 
in red plumage, which he had picked up dead upon the shore at Exmouth on the 17th inst. It appeared to 
have been injured on the back of the head, and to have crept into a crevice of one of the loose fragments of 
rock on the shore, where it was found by Mr. Fitton, partly covered with wet sand. The wind at the time 
was south-west, and had been blowing hard from nqrth-west to west and south-west for some days.” Mr. 
Yarrell states that both himself and Mr. Fitton examined the bird while in the flesh, and that on dissection 
it proved to be a male, probably in the second year of its existence. The stomach was empty. 
In its native country — northern and arctic America — no species is more widely dispersed; for it is to be 
seen in great numbers from Nova Scotia to Labrador, from the Red River to Davis’s Straits, and in the 
pine-forests thence to the Pacific it is everywhere to be found. 
Sir John Richardson informs us that it “ inhabits the dense white-spruce forests of the North-American fur 
countries, feeding principally on the seeds of the cones. It ranges through the whole breadth of the 
continent, and probably up to the sixty-eighth parallel, where the woods terminate, though it was not observed 
higher than the sixty-second. It is mostly seen on the upper branches of tbe trees, and, when wounded, 
clings so fast that it will remain suspended after death. In September it collects in small flocks, which fly 
from tree to tree, making a chattering noise ; and in the depth of winter it retires from the coast to the thick 
woods of the interior.” 
Audubon “found this species common on the islands near the entrance of the Bay of Fundy early in May 
1833. They were then journeying northwards ; but many pass the whole year in the northern parts of the 
State of Maine, and the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia : those seen on the islands 
above-mentioned were observed on their margins, some having alighted on the bare rocks ; and all those 
which were alarmed immediately took to wing, rose to a moderate height, and flew directly eastward. On 
my passage across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Labrador in the same month, about half-a-dozen White-winged 
Crossbills and as many Mealy Redpolls one day alighted on the top yards of our vessel, but before we could 
bring our guns from below they all left us. Within the limits of the United States I have obtained examples 
during winter along the hilly shores of the Schuylkil River in Pennsylvania ; also in New Jersey ; and in one 
instance in Maryland, a few miles from Baltimore, beyond which, southward, I have never met with this 
