PICA. 351 



p. Color chiefly blue. 



g^. Head with conspicuous crest. 



Cyanocitta. (Page 353.) 



g'\ Head without crest Aphelocoma. (Page 355.) 



/-. Color chiefly green, with outer tail-feathers yellow. 



Xanthoura. (Page 358.) 



e^ Color dull slaty or grayish above, dull graj'ish or brownish 



beneath, the head partly white in adults. ( Yoting wholly 



dusky.) Perisoreus. (Page 358.) 



a^. Tail much shorter than wing; wing long and pointed, the primaries exceeding 

 longest secondaries by more than the length of the tarsus, the third, fourth, 

 and fifth quills longest. (Subfamily Corvince.) 

 b^. Wing 9.00, or more ; plumage entirely glossy black (in North American 

 species) ; bill compressed, much higher than broad. 



Corvus. (Page 360.) 



b^. Wing less than 9.00 ; plumage mainly grayish or blue ; bill cylindrical, 



scarcely or not at all higher than broad. 



c\ Kostrils concealed by an antrorse tuft of feathera ; color ash-gray, with 



black on wings and tail, the latter mainl}- white, and secondaries 



broadly tipped with white Picicorvus. (Page 364.) 



c^. Nostrils wholly exposed ; color uniform dull blue, brighter on head. 



Cyanocephalus. (Page 364.) 



Genus PICA Cuvier. (Page 350, pi. XCVIIL, fig. 2.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — "Wings metallic greenish blue, varied with greenish or 

 violet (sometimes both), the inner webs of quills chiefly white ; tail rich metallic 

 green varied with brOnze, purple, and violet near end ; scapulars, belly, sides, and 

 flanks pure white ; other parts blackish. Adult : Head, neck, breast, back, tail- 

 coverts, and thighs deep black, the top of the head more or less distinctly glossed 

 with metallic greenish or bronzy. Young : Head, neck, etc., dull black, without 

 metallic gloss on crown. West of coarse, often thorny, sticks, lined with finer 

 twigs and rootlets, and protected by a loose canopy of coarse, often thorny, twigs, 

 the entrance through the latter on one side. Eggs 3-10, pale olive-buffy, dull 

 white, or very pale greenish, thickly speckled, clouded, sprinkled, or dashed with 

 brown. 



a^. Bill deep black, and naked skin of orbital region blackish. 



6\ Feathers of throat without white beneath surface ; wing 6.90-7.55 (7.24), 

 tail 8.40-10.30 (9.36), exposed culmen 1.10-1.25 (1.21), tarsus 1.57-1.80 

 (1.68). Hab. Noi'thern and central Europe. 



P. pica (LixN.). Magpie.^ 



1 Corvus pica Lixx., S. N. ed. 10, i. 1758, 106. Pica pica Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. 1877, 62. 



