character is usually very conspicuous. The same difference
obtains also in the adult males, while they may he besides
generally distinguished, as has been said already (page 217),
by the colour of the scapulars and middle of the back, which
in the American bird are of an almost uniform pitch-black,
as dark as or darker than the flight-feathers, and in freshly-
moulted examples present a very pleasing contrast on the
one side to the white wing-bars and on the other to the red
mantle and rump.
The whole length of the male is five inches and three-
quarters ; the wing from the carpal j oint three inches and
a half. The longest primaries are generally narrower and
more pointed in the present bird than in its Eastern representative,
and the height of the bill at the base rarely if
ever exceeds '3 in. The tapering form of this feature has
been before mentioned.
That the present is the form entitled to the name of
“ White-winged Crossbill B none can doubt, and the word
“ American ” added thereto in the last Edition of this work
is an encumbrance which requires a corresponding geographical
epithet in the case of the preceding bird. That of
“ European ” then applied is misleading, for the head-quarters
of Loxia bifasciata are rather in Asia than Europe. When
the difference between the two forms was recognized by
British ornithologists, Newman proposed (Zool. p. 2300) to
call that of the Old World the “ Two-barred Crossbill,”
and this earliest distinctive name, though possibly not the
happiest that might have been chosen, has been accordingly
here retained for it, while the ancient style of the American
form is left unchanged.*
* Certain writers, it may be remarked, for some recondite reason have removed
the Crossbills from the genus Loxia, but to the Editor it seems unquestionable
that L. curvi/rostra must be considered the type of that genus as founded by
Linnaeus, who, as was his wont, combined in his appellation the names by which
it had been before known to naturalists, while the derivation of the word Loxia
(from the Greek Xof«?, wry) shows that it is unsuitable to any of the other groups
to which it has been applied. Some writers have also separated the Crossbills
from the Fringillidce, and have given them the rank of a family under the
name of Loxiidce—a very needless division since they are most intimately
related to many of the unquestionable Finches.
A g el jEUS ph c en ic eu s (Linnaeus*).
THE RED-WINCED STARLING.
Agelaius plioeniceus.
Ageljeus, Vieillotf. —Bill as long as the head, hard, stout, straight and
cuneated ; the mandibles nearly equal, their edges inflected. Nostrils basal, oval,
overhung by a rudimentary operculum. Gape angular. Wings moderate, with
only nine primaries, that which is ordinarily the first being absent, and of those
present the outermost is shorter than the next two. Tail rather long, rounded.
Tarsi scutellated in front, covered behind by a single plate; claws moderate.
A specimen of this common American bird, shot near
London, was figured in 1738 by Albin, who says that he
* Oriolus phoeniceus, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 161 (1766).
+ Agelaius (by mistake), Vieillot, Analyse &c. p. 33 (1816).
VOL. II. I G