384. BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



HP. CHAR. Bill and naked suborbital skin black. Head, neck, breast, interseapulars, 

 lining of wing, tail- coverts, and tibiae, deep black, the pileimi usually glossed with 

 bronze-greenish. Lower parts (except as described), scapulars, and inner webs of pri- 

 maries, pure white. Wings metallic greenish blue; tail rich metallic green, passing, 

 near tips, through bronze and reddish violet into violet-blue. Total length (fresh speci- 

 mens), 17.50-21.75; extent, 21.25-25.CO; wing (in skins). 8.00-8.50; tail, 12.00-13.50. Feet deep 

 black; iris brown, with bluish gray outer ring. 



The occurrence of the Black-billed Magpie at present anywhere in 

 Illinois is extremely doubtful. There is no recent record of its having 

 been taken or even seen within the limits of the State, and its claim 

 to a place in our fauna rests solely on Mr. Kemiicott's statement that 

 it is (or was at the time his list was published) a rare winter visitant 

 to the extreme northern counties. 



The nest of the Magpie is a very bulky and somewhat remarkable 

 structure, composed exteriorly of sticks of various sizes, forming a 

 spherical mass, the upper portion of which forms a canopy to the 

 nest proper, the entrance being through one side. The eggs are 

 usually six in number, but often as many as nine, and are of a pale 

 olive or grayish white color, thickly speckled with olive-brown. 



GENUS CYANOCITTA STRICKLAND. 



Cyanocitla STRICKL. Ann. Nat. Hist, xv, 1845, 2G1. Type, Corvn-s cristatus LINN. 

 ryai,.urus "SwAiNSON," BAIRD, B. N. Am. 1858. B. B. & R. Hist. N. Am. B. ii, 1874, 264, 

 271, et Aucx. (nee SWAINS.) 



"GEN. CHAR. Head crested. Wings and tail blue, with transverse black bars; head 

 and back of same color. Bill rather slender, somewhat broader than high at the base; 

 culmen about equal to the head. Nostrils large, nearly circular, concealed by bristles. 

 Tail about as long as the wings, lengthened, graduated. Hind claw large, longer than 

 its digit." (Rift. X. Am. B.) 



Two widely distinct species of this well-marked genus belong to 

 North America, one of them being peculiar to the Eastern Province, 

 the other restricted to the mountainous portions of the Western 

 Province, and south through Mexico to Guatemala and Honduras. 

 The latter is divided into several geographical races, as follows : 



(1) C. coronata (rera), Honduras, Guatemala, and southern Mexico ; 



(2) C. coronata diadem at a, central Mexico; (3) C. coronata macrolopha, 

 Rocky Mountains of the United States ; (4) C. coronata annectens, 

 northern Rocky Mountains; (5) C. coronata stelleri, northwest 

 coast, from the northern Coast Eange of California to Sitka; 

 (6) C. coronata front alis, Sierra Nevada range. These races arc 

 very distinct when typical examples are compared; so much so, 

 in fact, that were not true intergradatioii evident they would be 

 considered separate species. They are all characterized in "History 



