88 
FEMALE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 
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 plumage 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 brilliancy 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 is common 
on the borders of Lake Ontario, and descends in autumn and 
winter into Canada and the Northern and Middle states. Its 
migrations however are very irregular. During four years it 
had escaped my careful researches, and now while writing (in 
the first week of November, 1827) they are so abundant, that 
