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.” f

«This species,” says Prince Charles Lucian Bonaparte, “ tne during summer the remotest regions of
North America. Its range is widely extended ; for we can trace it from Labrador westward to Fort de la
Fourche, in latitude 56°, the borders of Peace River, and Montagu Island on the north-west coast, where it
was found by Dixon. Round Hudson’s Bay it is common and well known, probably extending far to the
north-west, 29 Mackenzie appears to allude to it when speaking of the only land-bird found in the desolate
regions he was exploring, which enlivened with its agreeable notes the deep and silent forests of those
frozen tracts. It is common on the borders of Lake Ontario, and descends in autumn and winter into
Canada and the Northern and Middle States. Its migrations, however, are very irregular. It is seldom
observed elsewhere than in pine swamps and forests, feeding almost exclusively on the seeds of these trees,
together with a few berries. All the specimens I obtained had their crops filled to excess entirely with
the small seeds of Pinus inops. They kept in flocks of from twenty to fifty, and when alarmed suddenly
took wing all at once, and, after a little manceuvring in the air, generally alighted again nearly on the same
pines which they had left, or on the naked branches of some distant, high and isolated tree. In the
countries where they pass the summer, they build their nest on the limb of a pine, towards the centre ;
it is composed of grasses and earth, and lined internally with feathers. The female lays five eggs, which
are white, spotted with yellowish. The young leave the nest in June, and are able to join the parent birds
in their autumnal migration. When a deep snow has covered the ground in the northern countries where
these birds are numerous, they appear to lose all sense of danger, and, by spreading some favourite food, may
be knocked down with sticks, or even caught with the hand, while busily engaged in feeding. Their manners
in other respects also are very similar to those of the Common Crossbill.”

Independently of the smaller size and more slender form of the bill as compared with that of L. b2fasciata,
this bird may at all times be distinguished from that species by the red colouring of the adult male being
suffused with a rich vinous hue, which is particularly conspicuous on the head, neck, and breast; in the
arrangement of the colouring and markings the two species are very similar, each having the wing-coverts

y
yellowish white ; under tail-coverts blackish brown, broadly margined with white.

The female has the whole of the head, neck, upper part of the back, breast, and flanks suffused with fine
orange-yellow, the centre of the feathers being dark olive, giving the head and back of the neck a mottled
appearance ; lower part of the back fine yellow; the remainder of the plumage as in the male.

tipped with white, forming two distinct bands, and the wings and tail black narrowly margined with

I have remarked that males taken in summer in high northern regions are very much richer in colour
than those found to the southward, the red of the body being deeper and the black of the wings and tail
more intense.

The Plate represents a male and a female on the Common Larch (Abies Larix).