AMERICAN WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 
141 
In Scotland one, mentioned by Pennant, and one recorded 
by Archibald Jerdon, Esq., which was shot near Bonjedward, 
Roxburghshire, in February, 1841. 
These birds go in flocks of from twenty to fifty, taking 
wing all at once together when alarmed, and after a little 
manoeuvring in the air, generally alighting again on the trees 
from which they had moved. The young leave the nest in 
June, and are soon able to join the parent birds in their 
autumnal migration from the ‘North countree’ to some rather 
more hospitable clime. 
The nest is said to be placed on the branches of pine 
trees, and to be composed of grasses, cemented together with 
earth, and lined with feathers. 
The eggs are described as white, marked with yellowish 
spots. 
Male; length, about six inches. The bill is much com¬ 
pressed laterally, and black in colour; a black line passes 
through the eye. The head, which is sometimes speckled on 
the sides with black, and is crossed on the forehead with a 
line of that colour, is fine crimson, as are also the crown 
and neck, the base of each feather being dark grey. The 
nape is crossed by a blackish band; chin, throat, and breast 
above, fine crimson, the latter on the middle part and below 
is greyish brown. The back, also crimson, is crossed about 
the middle by a blackish band. 
The wings have the first three quill feathers nearly equal 
in length, the fourth shorter than the third, but much longer 
than the fifth; greater and lesser wing coverts, broadly tipped 
with white, forming two bands; primaries, black, some of them 
narrowly edged with white; secondaries and tertiaries, black, 
some of the latter tipped with white. Tail, almost uniform 
black; upper tail coverts, dusky, bordered at the tip of each 
feather with a narrow line of white. Legs and toes, brown. 
The female, at first like the young male, has the head, 
crown, neck on the back, and nape, greenish grey, the feathers 
bordered with yellowish green. Chin, throat, and breast above, 
greenish grey, streaked with blackish lines, and on the middle 
whitish, with some yellow; back, greenish grey, on the lower 
part pale yellow. The wings are barred with white as in 
the male. 
In the young the bill is dark horn-colour towards the 
point, the upper mandible very much compressed, the lower 
one is rather lighter in colour; iris, dark hazel; head, crown, 
