Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 60. (Budapest 1968)

Horváth, L.: The evolutional significance of aberrations appearing in the plumage of the crossbill (Loxia curvirostra Linnaeus)

17. L. curvirostra japonica Ç, Lau-ku-kou, North Kansu, 23 Jan., 1930. Traces of a white bar on tbe end of the primaries. 18. L. curvirostra çf, Sweden, Nov., 1900. Traces of a white bar on the end of the primaries. 19. L. curvirostra cf, Kurov, Czechoslovakia, 23 Nov., 1965. A narrow but distinct bar on the end of the primaries. 20. L. curvirostra japonica cf, Yehol, Sechuan, China, 27 April, 1916. A narrow, white bar on the end of the primaries. 21. L. curvirostra çf, Spas Demensk, Smolensk, 23 Dec, 1942. A narrow, white bar on the primaries. 22. L. curvirostra albiventris, cf, Japan. A rather wide, white stripe on the end of the primaries. 23. L. curvirostra albiventris cf, Japan. Traces of a white bar on the end of the primaries. 24. L. curvirostra albiventris cf, Japan. A strikingly wide, white stripe on the end of the primaries. 25. L. curvirostra albiventris çf, Issyk-kul, China. December. Two strikingly wide, white stripes on the end of the primaries and secondaries, respectively. 26. L. curvirostra bangsi juv. çf, Sinnig, North Kansu, China, 24 April, 1930. Two conspicuous, narrow bars, on the end of the primaries and secondaries, respectively. 27. L. curvirostra çf, Frauenau an Rassel, Germany, 29 March, 1913. Traces of two white bars on the end of the primaries and secondaries, respectively. 28. L. curvirostra çf, Madarasi Hargita, Transyslvania, Rumania, 29 March, 1942. Three conspicuous white stripes of a slightly rosy tint on the end of the primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, respectively. It was specimens like these that BONAPARTE & SCHLEGEL described as the new subspecies L. curvirostra rubrifasciata in 1850, and C. L. BREHM as a new species L. rubrifasciata in 1853. GY. MADARÁSZ mentioned that A. KOCYÁN also shot a similar specimen at Oravitz (Com. Árva, now is Czechoslovakia) on 7 February, 1884, and that it found its way to V. TASCHUSI'S collection. Again, MADARÁSZ reported on a like specimen from the old collection (consumed by fire in 1956) of the Hungarian National Museum ; the exemplar originated also from the Comitat Árva. According to literature, I. MEDRECZKY observed similarly coloured crossbills near Ungvár in 1895. Quoting BREHM, I. CHERNÉL considered the individuals captured by KOCYÁN and MEDRECZKY as representing a subspecies of the two-barred crossbill (Loxia leucoptera), and named them pink-winged crossbill. WITHERBY mentions on the one hand that a pale wing stripe caused by a lightening of the primary apices is a general occurrence in the crossbill, and on the other that the pinkish discolouration of the tertiary apices is also a general phenomenon in the winter plumage of old males. At the same time, ha states unequivocally and categorically that two or three light bands never occurs in curvirostra. With due attention to, and in the knowledge of, the above discussion, and on the basis of my own studies based on a large and extensive material, I must contend that even a single wing bar, but especially a double one, cannot be anything else but an atavistic aberrational feature and therefore an evidence that L. curvirostra descended from L. leucoptera. The single stripe occurring in curvirostra is by no means general, because I observed it only in 33 (7.5 per cent) of 248 exemplars, though I listed as aberrational even those, as witnesses the list above, which showed merely traces of the feature in question. The research material contained numerous juvenile specimens with their early plumage, indeed there were also some pulli, but not even these latter exhibited the least traces of a white bar. Of the conspicuous three stripes, observed on specimen No. 28, the tint of the proximal one, namely the rosy discoloration on the apices of the tertiaries, agrees with the normal winter colouration as given by WITHERBY, but the other two indubitably represent leucoptera features. It is quite clear also from the examples given up to now that the features representing abnormal revertals occur in