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TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL. 
straggler; and from whence it has come, whether from the 
American continent, across the wide and stormy Atlantic by 
some instinctively-discovered ‘North-west Passage,’ or from 
the equally wild regions of the Caucasian range by some 
overland transit, is a question which we cannot answer, and 
must accordingly be content to leave in the uncertain state 
in which it propounds itself to our inquiry. Certainly, how¬ 
ever, it would appear the most natural, that that journey, 
the land one, which offers a halting-place, when required, to 
the weary traveller, should be the one adopted by the fragile 
bird. Uncertain too, as are the periods, so are also doubtless 
the causes of its migrations, if migrations they may be 
called, wanderings rather, instigated by some motive, which, 
if we knew, might commend itself at once to our reason as 
the natural one, or by some mysterious and hidden impulse, 
whose capricious and wayward tendency we could by no 
means fathom the secret of, even if we had ascertained that 
it was by it that its movements were directed. 
Male; length, from six inches and a quarter to a little 
over seven; the bill is wider at the base than that of the 
American White-winged Crossbill; iris, hazel; head and crown, 
pale dull red; neck behind and nape, pale red mixed with 
grey; chin, throat, and breast above, pale dull red with a 
mixture of yellow; below greyish white, darker on the sides; 
the back is dusky red on the middle part, and bright reddish 
yellow on the lower; the sides do not assume the black tint 
which distinguishes the American White-winged Crossbill. 
The wings are shorter than in the Common Crossbill; the 
greater and lesser wing coverts have two broad white bands 
across them, occupying the tips of those feathers; primaries, 
secondaries, and tertiaries, deep brown, the smaller feathers 
tinged with dull red; the tertiaries are also tipped with 
white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, brownish grey. 
The tail is longer than in the Common Crossbill; legs and 
toes, purple brown; the toes are also shorter than in the 
Common Crossbill. 
