. A history of British birds . ger and with a more powerful bill, which is obviouseven in young examples; and the scapulars and feathers ofthe middle of the back are much more broadly tipped andedged with brown or red. The tail also is rather less forked,but perhaps a better character is found in the fact that itsfeathers seldom lose their light margins, which indeed areoften very conspicuous, while the American bird is almost asseldom seen possessing them. Further distinction hasalso been sought ((Efvers. K. Forhandl. 1846, p. 40)in the proportional length of the toes and claws, but
. A history of British birds . ger and with a more powerful bill, which is obviouseven in young examples; and the scapulars and feathers ofthe middle of the back are much more broadly tipped andedged with brown or red. The tail also is rather less forked,but perhaps a better character is found in the fact that itsfeathers seldom lose their light margins, which indeed areoften very conspicuous, while the American bird is almost asseldom seen possessing them. Further distinction hasalso been sought ((Efvers. K. Forhandl. 1846, p. 40)in the proportional length of the toes and claws, but theexamination of a considerable series of specimens castsdoubt upon this as a character. It follows then that thegeneral dimensions, and especially those of the bill, are aloneto be trusted, though the presence or absence of the lightmargins of the tail-feathers, and in cock birds the colour ofthe scapulars and back, will in the great majority of casesdecide the question at a glance. 218 PASSERES. FRINGILLID^. X. LoxiA LEUCOPTERA, J. F. Gmeliii.*THE WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. Loxla leucoptera. For a long time the only known form of Crossbill withwhite on its wings, this bird was originally described in 1783under the above English name by Latham (Gen. Syn. B. ii. ) who had received specimens from Hudsons Bay and NewYork. A few years later, the compiler Gmelin bestowed onit the scientific appellation it still bears and thereby fore-stalled its first describcrs wish, not expressed till 1790 ( i. p. 371), of calling it Loxia falcirostra. As hasbeen said already it Avas not for many years after that theAvhite-winged Crossbill of the Old World was recognized asdistinct from that of the New. It is not improbable that a specimen or more of Americanorigin may have been among those white-winged Crossbills* Syst. Nat. i. p. 84i (1788). WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL. 219 that have occurred in this country ^Yithout being subjected tothe eye of a critical ornithologist, and
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