540 
GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 
The length of this species is about 6^ inches. The bill brown 
horn-color. Legs and feet light brown ; claws large, much curved 
and very sharp for the purpose of clinging to the cones and fruits on 
which they feed. Irides brown. 
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 
(Loxia leucoptera, Gmel. Curvirostra leucoptera , Wilson, iv. p. 
48. pi. 31. fig. 3. [young male]. Bonap. Am. Orn. ii. pi. 14. fig. 
3. [female]. 
Sp. Charact. — Wings with 2 white bands. — The different states 
of plumage very similar to the preceding. — Young male more in- 
clined to crimson, and without any yellow. 
This beautiful and well distinguished species inhab- 
its the northern regions of the American continent only, 
from whence, at irregular intervals, on the approach of 
winter, they arrive in the Northern and Middle States ; 
and, as usual, with the rest of this curious family, seek 
out the pine and hemlock-spruce forests. Their visits 
to this state are very irregular. About two years since 
they were seen in large, gregarious, famished flocks, 
near Newburyport, and other neighbouring towns in the 
vicinity of the sea-coast, at which time many were 
caught, killed, and caged. Their whole habits are 
almost entirely similar to those of the preceding spe- 
cies. 
According to Mr. Hutchins in Latham,'* this species, 
as is supposed, arrives around Hudson’s Bay in March, 
and in May builds a nest of grass, mud, and feathers, 
fixed generally about half way up a pine tree, and lays 
5 white eggs, marked with yellowish spots. The young 
fly about the end of June. It remains in this country 
till the close of November, after which it retires, proba- 
bly to the South ; and Wilson’s bird was obtained in the 
* Latham’s General Synopsis, Supplement, i. p. 148. [4to.] 
