No. 26.
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.
A. O. U. No. 522. Loxia leucoptera Gmel.
Description.—Male: Rosy-red or carmine all over, save for grayish of nape and black of scapulars, wings, and tail. The black of scapulars sometimes meets on lower back. Two conspicuous white wing-bars are formed by the tips of the middle and greater coverts. Bill slender and weaker than in preceding species. Female and young: Light olive-yellow, ochraceous, or even pale orange over gray, clearer on rump, duller on throat and belly; most of the feathers with dusky centers, finer on crown and throat, broader on back and breast; wings and tail as in male, but fuscous rather than black; feather-edgings olivaceous. Very variable. Length 6.00-6.50 (152.4-165.1); wing 3.50 (88.9); tail 2.25 (57.2); bill .67 (17).
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; crossed bill; conspicuous white wing-bars of both sexes.
Nesting.—Nest has not yet been taken in Washington but bird undoubtedly breeds here. “Nest: of twigs and strips of birch-bark, covered exteriorly with moss (Usnea) and lined with soft moss and hair, on the fork of an evergreen, in deep forests. Eggs: 3(?), pale blue, spotted and streaked near larger end with reddish brown and lilac, .80 × .55 (20.3 × 1.4.)” (Chamberlain). Season: Feb.-March.
General Range.—Northern parts of North America and southern Greenland, south into the United States in winter. Resident in coniferous timber thru the entire northern tier of states and irregularly south in the mountains at least to Colorado. Casual in western Europe.
Range in Washington.—Several records of occurrences in northern Cascade Mountains. Doubtless regular and resident.
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XVII. Oct., 1901, p. 403. D².
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. C. B.
To tell the truth, no one hereabouts appears to know much about the White-winged Crossbill. It is presumed to be common in the Cascade Mountains, but I have only thrice encountered it: once, May 15, 1891, in the mountains of Yakima County; again, July 23, 1900, on the slopes of Wright’s Peak near the head of Lake Chelan; and lastly, on the summit of Cascade Pass, June 25, 1906. There are no other records.[12] This species is quite as erratic as its more common cousin; and while it is, perhaps, more nearly confined to the mountains, it should be looked for wherever C. minor occurs, and especially in flocks of the latter species.
Of the bird’s occurrence in Alaska, where it is much more abundant, Nelson says[13]: “It is more familiar than the Grosbeak [i. e., Pinicola enucleator alascensis], frequently coming low down among the smaller growth, and it is a common sight to see parties of them swinging about in every conceivable position from the twigs on the tops of the cottonwoods or birch trees, where the birds are busily engaged in feeding upon the buds. They pay no heed to a passing party of sleds, except, perhaps, that an individual will fly down to some convenient bush, where he curiously examines the strange procession, and, his curiosity satisfied or confidence restored, back he goes to his companions and continues feeding. When fired at they utter chirps of alarm and call to each other with a long, sweet note, something similar to that of the Goldfinch (Spinus tristis). They keep up a constant cheeping repetition of this note when feeding in parties, and if one of their number is shot the others approach closer and closer to the hunter, and gaze with mingled curiosity and sympathy upon their fluttering companion.”
No. 27.
GRAY-CROWNED LEUCOSTICTE.
A. O. U. No. 524. Leucosticte tephrocotis Swains.
Synonyms.—Rosy Finch. Swainson’s Rosy Finch.
Description.—Adults: Similar to L. t. littoralis but ashy gray of head restricted to sides of crown and occiput—in worn plumages black of crown produced backward to meet brown of hind neck. Seasonal changes as in succeeding. Size of next.
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; warm brown plumage; ashy gray not encroaching upon sides of head as distinguished from L. t. littoralis.
Nesting.—Not known to breed in Washington. “Nest made of strips of bark and grass, built in a fissure of a rock at the side of a bunch of grass” (Reed). Eggs: 4 or 5, white. Season: June; one brood.
General Range.—Imperfectly made out—probably discontinuous. Reported breeding from such widely separated localities as the Rocky Mountains of British America and the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains of southern California; winters on the eastern slopes of the Rockies and irregularly eastward to western Nebraska, Manitoba, etc., westward to Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges (Camp Harvey, Ore. Pullman, Wash. Chilliwhack, B. C.).
Range in Washington.—Probably of regular occurrence during migrations and in winter east of the Cascade Mountains only.
Authorities.—Not previously reported; W. T. Shaw in epistola, Dec. 31, 1908.
Specimens.—Pullman.
Mountain climbing as an art is still in its infancy in the Northwest and altho the Mountaineers and the Mazamas are attacking the situation vigorously we have yet much to learn of the wild life upon our Washington sierras. But what problem could be more fascinating to a lover of birds and mountains than that of working out accurately the distribution of the Rosy Finches in America? They are the mountaineers par excellence, they are the Jebusites of the untaken citadels, and our ignorance of their ways will ere long become a reproach to our vaunted western enterprise. As it stands, however, only scanty crumbs of information have come to us concerning this most interesting and widely distributed race of Highlanders.
The Gray-crowned Leucosticte is considered the central figure of the genus, shading[14], as it does, into L. atrata of the Bitterroots and L. australis of Colorado, into L. t. littoralis of southern British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, and (perhaps thru littoralis) into griseonucha of the Aleutians. This assumes for the species a center of distribution in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan where the bird is known to occur. And so because of the greater severity of the winters in its normal haunts this form is found to be the greatest wanderer of its group, being frequently driven in the fall far out upon the central eastern plains or down the “inside passage” between the Rockies and Sierras.
It was in this fashion, probably, that a colony of this species became established in the southern Sierras of California, where it now maintains a vigorous existence separated, as we suppose, by at least a thousand miles from the parent stock in British Columbia.