LAND BIRDS. 411 



Family 53. CORVID^. Crows, Jays, etc. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Large birds, wing 12 inches or more, plumage all black. B, BB. 



B. Wing more than 15 inches, tail graduated. Northern Raven. No. 



193. 

 BB. Wing less than 15 inches, tail-feathers all of same length. Crow. 

 No. 194. 

 AA. Smaller birds, wing less than 10 inches, plumage not all black. C, CC. 



C. Tail very long (over 9 inches) and much graduated, the lateral 



feathers scarcely one-half the length of the middle ones. Magpie. 

 No. 190. 

 CC. Tail moderate (about 6 inches), somewhat rounded at tip. D, DD. 

 D. Head with conspicuous crest, plumage largely blue. Blue 



Jay. No. 191. 

 DD. Head without crest, plumage mostly gray, no blue. Canada 

 Jav. No. 192. 



190. Magpie. Pica pica hudsonia (Sabine). (475) 



Synonyms: American Magpie, Black-billed Magpie. — Corvus hudsonius, Sabine, 1823. 

 — Corvus pica, Forst., 1772. — Pica hudsonica, Bonap., 1838. — Pica melanoleuca var. 

 hudsonica, Coues, 1872. — Pica caudata var. hudsonica, Allen, 1872. 



A strikingly handsome bird, averaging about 18 inches in length, of which 

 the tail forms nearly half; general color glossy blue-black with purple and 

 metallic reflections, but the entire belly and large areas on the wing-feathers 

 and scapulars pure white. The bird suggests a Crow Blackbird or Grackle, 

 but is larger than our species, and the conspicuous white markings of course 

 distinguish it at a glance. 



Distribution. — Northern and western North America, from the Plains 

 to the Cascade Mountains and north to Alaska; casually east and south 

 to Michigan (accidental in northern Illinois in winter), and in the Rocky 

 Mountains to New Mexico and Arizona. 



This species is mentioned in several of the older lists of birds of the state 

 and there can be little doubt that it is, or formerly was, found occasionally 

 in winter in the northern parts of the state, particularly in the Upper 

 Peninsula. Schoolcraft wrote: "The Magpie is found to approach as far 

 north as Lac du Flambeau on the head waters of the above river [Montreal 

 River, which forms the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin], and 

 in the vicinity of Lake Superior this bird is called by the Chippewas ' Wobish 

 Kakagee' or 'White Crow'" (Schoolcraft, Discovery of the Sources of the 

 Mississippi River, ''Birds of Lake Superior," 1855, page 104). Dr. S. 

 Knceland, Jr., in his Birds of Keweenaw Point (Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist. 

 VI, 231) states that he has seen a few specimens obtained near Eagle River 

 (Keweenaw county). This was in the winter of 1856-57. Dr. Gibbs 

 states that the Rev. Mr. Day of Cadillac, who formerly lived as a missionary 

 at an Indian reservation in the Upper Peninsula, told him that he knew 

 of this species as a very common one at that time "ten to twenty years 



