chiefly of spruces where there were no larches. He says that
the note seemed to him sharper than that of the common
species. With respect to the nidification of the Two-barred
Crossbill no details whatever have been given. The egg
is exceedingly rare in collections', and the only specimen as
yet figured was laid in a cage. A specimen in the Editor’s
possession, received through a trusty channel from the neighbourhood
of Archangel, presents precisely the appearance
of an ordinary Crossbill’s egg and measures ‘97 by *66 in.
The adult male in full plumage has the bill of a dusky
horn-colour: the head, neck, mantle and rump are brilliant
light crimson-red, the dusky base of the feathers appearing
in places and giving a mottled look to the whole; the scapulars
and feathers of the back are dull blackish-brown,
broadly tipped with the same crimson-red, as are also the
upper tail-.coverts, but in them the red is mixed with white;
the wings are dark blackish-brown—the middle and greater
wing-coverts dusky at the base and then pure white, or white
tinged with pink, for more than half their length, forming
two conspicuous white bands ; the quills are narrowly fringed
with reddish- or yellowish-white, and most of them are tipped
with white-B-the tertials very broadly; the tail-quills are also
dark brownish-black, edged with white, sometimes tinged
with red or yellow on the outer fringe ; the throat, breast and
flanks are nearly as the head and greater part of the upper
surface f the belly greyish-white; the lower tail-coverts dull
white tinged with pink, each having a dusky base which runs
into a pointed median stripe ; legs, toes and claws, dusky.
In a male, which had been apparently kept in confinement,
the head, back, breast and flanks are varied with
bright yellow, forming a most gaudy combination of colours.
The whole length of the male is six inches and a quarter;
the wing from the carpal joint three inches and three quarters
: the height of the bill at the base from *35 to *45 inch.
The youngest bird seen by the Editor has much the same
striated plumage as the common Crossbill at the same age—
the white bars on the wings, which are then as conspicuous
as in adults, of course excepted. The exact course of the
change that follows is not with certainty known ; but there
is no doubt that much of the striated character is soon lost,
particularly by the cocks, which appear to attain before or in
their first autumn a greyish suit, suffused here and there by
a rosy blush or a warm ochreous tinge. The hens commonly
retain the striations to a great degree, while their
general plumage inclines to green or greenish-yellow on the
breast and rump. Except the white wing-bars there is little
difference in style of coloration between them and the hens
of the common species.
Confusion, however, of the present bird with its American
representative must be guarded against. The differential
characters are rather minute, but most of those assigned by
various writers appear to be constant. Exception may be
taken to the alleged difference in the red colouring of the
cocks, the intensity and tone of which varies considerably
and some European examples are quite as brilliant as any
from America. The more constant differences may be thus
summed up. The bird of the Old ^Vhrld is very decidedly
the larger and with a more powerful bill, which is obvious
even in young examples; and the scapulars and feathers of
the middle of the back are much more broadly tipped and
edged with brown or red. The tail also is rather less forked,
but perhaps a better character is found in the fact that its
feathers seldom lose their light margins, which indeed are
often very conspicuous, while the American bird is almost as
seldom seen possessing them. Further distinction has
also been sought (CEfvers. K. Yet.-Ak. Forhandl. 1846, p. 40)
in the proportional length of the toes and claws, but the
examination of a considerable series of specimens casts
doubt upon this as a character. It follows then that the
general dimensions, and especially those of the bill, are alone
to be trusted, though the presence or absence of the light
margins of the tail-feathers, and in cock birds the colour of
the scapulars and back, will in the great majority of cases
decide the question at a glance.