depth of winter it retirés from the coast to the thick woods of
the interior.
Mr. Audubon, in his fourth volume of American Ornithological
Biography, now just published, .says, “ I found this
species quite Common on the islands near the entrance of the
Bay of Fundy, which I visited early in May 1818. They
were then journeying northwards, although many pass the
whole year in the northern parts of the state of Maine, and
the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ;
where, however, they-seem to have been overlooked, or confounded
with our Common American Crossbill. Those
which I met with on the islands before-mentioned were observed
on their margins, some having alighted, on the bare
rocks ; and all those which were alarmed immediately took to
wing, rose to a moderate height, and flew directly eastward.
On my passage across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Labrador
in the same month, about a dozen White-winged Crossbills;
and as many Mealy Redpolls, one day alighted on the top
yards of our vessel ; but before we could bring our guns from
below they all left us, and flew ahead, ns ; if, intent on pointing
out to us the place to which we Were bound. Within
the limits of the. United States I have obtained*Some during
winter along the hilly shores of the Schuylkill River inT3enn-'
sylvania ; also in New Jersey, and in one; instance in Maryland,
a few miles from Baltimore,"beyond which, southward,
I have never met with this species, nor have I heard, of "any
having been seen there. Its, song is at times mellow and
agreeable, and in captivity it becomes gentle and familiar.” .
Young birds have the beak of dark horn colour ; towards
the point, the upper mandible is so compressed the edges are
almost united; the lower mandible rather lighter in colour
; the feathers at the base of the beak, near the. nostrils,
greyish white ; irides dark hazel ; head, neck, and back, dull
greenish grey, mottled with a darker -tint, which pervades- the
centre of each feather? the rump tinged with greenish yellow;
the under surface of the body of a lighter grey, longitudinally
streaked with dusky brown; the shoulders mottled
with -two-shades o f greyish brown; both sets of wing-
coverts dull black, with white* tipS, forming two conspicuous
bars across the wings? all the'quill-feathers nearly black ; the
primaries and secondaries with narrow lighter-coloured edges;
the tertials edged-and tippfed with white;' the tail forked, the
'feathers dulT-black,; with narrow light-coldftred edges ; under
tail-Co*verts^dark at th^fdia|C/with gfeyish white ends ; legs,
■tofes, andl'li^s, dark brown.
^■"The maleuii his second plumage has the beak, neck;yback,
-rump, and-under, surface of the body, crimssfi red % the base of
each feather dark the and- .darker
than in the younger-.bird, .or-than in either of the other
species, and almost uniform iMck; the tertials only being
tipped with white.'
male described by the Prince’ of Musignano, and be-
lievM^o bW&'lder. than the preceding, bird, had a light buff
orange tinge where the other was crimson; the wings and
tail of a' still deeper.^lack.-'
The'ffelfiale. at first” like the-young bird, | | | t afterwards
4ose#t‘ke’striated appearance on the under surface, and attains
a lemon yellow colour on the rump, and over a. portion of
the brea'stf..' -
Whole length about six: inches.. From the carpal joint to
the end of the^W^|%, three inches and'tl|Aee-eighths : the
first three primaries very nearly of equal length, and the
longest in the | wing; the fourth feather shorter than the
third, but much longer than the fifth.