152 
LOXIA LEUCOPTERA. 
The female white-winged crossbill is five inches and 
three quarters long, and nearly nine in extent ; the bill 
is more than five-eighths long, of a dark horn colour, 
paler on the edges ; as is the case in the whole genus, 
it is very much compressed throughout, but especially 
at the point, where the edges almost unite into one : 
both mandibles are curved (the lower one upwards) 
from the base, the ends crossing each other ; the upper 
has its ridge distinct, and usually crosses to the left in 
both sexes, and not, as Wilson appears to intimate, 
generally in one sex only ; the lower mandible is 
considerably shorter ; the tongue is short, cartilaginous, 
and entire ; the irides are of a very dark hazel ; the 
small setaceous feathers covering the nostrils, which is 
one of the characteristics of the genus, are whitish 
gray ; the bottom of the plumage is every where slate 
colour ; the head, and all the upper parts down to the 
rump, are of a grayish green strongly tinged with 
olive, each feather being marked with black in the 
centre, giving the plumage a streaked appearance ; the 
rump is pure pale lemon yellow, the upper tail-coverts 
are blackish, margined with whitish ^olive ; the front, j 
and a broad line over and round the eye and bill, are 
slightly distinguished from the general colour of the 
head by the want of olivaceous, being grayish white, 
and as the feathers are very small, appear minutely 
dotted with black: the curved blackish spot, more 
apparent in the colours of the male, is slightly indicated 
on the sides of the head ; the sides of the head and 
neck, the throat, and the breast, are of a grayish white, 
also streaked with blackish, and somewhat tinged with 
yellowish on the sides of the breast ; the flanks become 
of a dingy yellowish gray, and have large, dull, blackish 
blotches; the belly and vent are of a much purer 
whitish, and the streaks are on that part long, narrow, 
and well defined ; the under tail-coverts are blackish, 
with broad white margins ; the wings are three inches 
and a half long, reaching, when closed, to the last of the 
tail-coverts ; the first three primaries are subequal and 
longest, the fourth being but little shorter, and much 
