NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIV. 1917. 493 



THE SUBSPECIES OF CYANOPICA CYANUS. 

 By De. ERNST HARTERT. 



UP to 1903 all the blue-tailed Magpies of eastern Asia were supposed to bo 

 one and the same race ; in Vog. pal. Fauna, i. p. 24, I .sejjarated the form 

 from southern and middle China as Cyanopica cyanus swinhoei, which is indeed 

 readUy distinguishable by the darker, more rufous grey-brown upperside. The 

 exact distribution of swinhoei is not yet quite certain ; I have examined skins 

 from Kiukiang. Hupeh, Woochang, Shanghai, Chinkiang, Zemingdah in China. 

 We have also a 3 collected at " Guniansi " in Amdo, and there are three specimens 

 in the British Museum, from Przewalski, which are labelled " Kansu." Unfor- 

 tunately Kansu is a rather vague locality, but the one from Amdo and the three 

 Kansu skins agree quite with my swinhoei, and not with my inter posita, which 

 we should have exjjected there. 



In 1903 I queried the Japanese form (p. 23), and it has been named C. cyanus 

 /apowica by Parrot [Orn. Monatsber. 1905, p. 26, a.nd Zool. Jahrb. xxv. p. 22, 1907). 

 This Japanese form is smaller than C. c. cyanus and swinhoei, and the back is 

 darker and more greyish. Parrot laid stress on the white tips to the lateral 

 rectrices, but their presence or absence is an individual character ; it is true 

 that all young birds have them, but also many perfectly adult ones exhibit them, 

 while they are entirely absent or only narrow or indicated in others. It was 

 an accident that the majority of the Japanese skins examined by Parrot had 

 white tips, for only one of those in the British Museum has them. 



Since then we have received, from the late Alan Owston in Yokohama, a 

 large series (45 specimens) from Tai-pai-shan, Tsin-ling Mts. These birds are 

 easily distinguished from C. c. cyanus and swinhoei, but very closely allied to 

 japonica ! In fact the only difference from the latter is the darker grey back ! 

 With these Tsin-ling birds agree those from Corea in the British Museum (5 SS, 

 2 ??), collected by Anderson), and I must identify with this form also a female 

 from Sungpan in north-western Setchuan and one from Peking. The Tsin- 

 ling, Corea, and Peking race is also frequently larger ; while the wings of Japanese 

 skins measure 132-139, once only 142 (my own measurements only), those from 

 Tsinling and Corea have wings of 132-148 mm., but this difference in size may not 

 hold good, as so many more Tsin-ling and Corea birds were measured, and were 

 compared with only 14 Jaiianese ones. 



I name the birds from Corea and Tsin-ling, to which would also belong 

 those from Peking, though I have only seen one, 



Cyanopica cyanus interposita, subsp. nov. 



Type: S ad., Tai-pai-shan, Tsin-ling Mts., 20. xi. 1905. collected by 

 Owston's Japanese collectors. 



C. cyanus cyanus differs almost invariably from all the other forms by having 

 the blue-black cap more purplish. 



