(^ROWS AND |A^'S 



215 



Crows and Ravens reach their southern limit in the Greater Antilles and on the highlands 

 of Honduras, no peculiar species occurring south of central Mexico or Jamaica, the Greater 

 Antilles lacking any representation of the Jays and Magpies and the Lesser Antilles being 

 without a single member of either group. 



MAGPIE 

 Pica pica hudsonia (Sabine) 



Names. — .Xnierican Magpie: 



Other 



Magpie. 



General Descriprion. — Length, ly; ;! inches. Plum- 

 age, black with white on .shoulders and abdomen. 

 Tail, much longer than wing, graduated for ■/. or more 

 of its length; wing, short and rounded; feet, stout. 



Color. — Adults: Head, neck, chest, upper breast, 

 back, lesser wing-coverts, lower rump, upper and under 

 tail-coverts, anal region, thighs, lower abdomen, and 

 under wing-coverts, uniform black, the crown glossed 

 with bronze, the back faintly glossed with bluish-grccn 

 or bluish in certain lights; shoulders, lozi'cr hrrast, 

 upper abdomen, sides, and flank's, U'liitc; a broad band 

 of grayish-white across upi)er rump ; prevailing color 

 of middle and greater wing-coverts and secondaries 

 metallic steel-blue, varying to bronzy-green ; primaries, 

 blackish glossed with greenish-bronze, bluish-green, or 

 steel-bluish ; the inner webs of the primaries mostly 

 white; tail, bright metallic bronzy-green, passing into 

 metallic-purple ; iris, brown. Young: Similar to adults, 

 but black of head, neck, etc., much duller, without 

 metallic gloss ; feathers of throat usually with the basal 

 white spots much larger, often conspicuously exposed 



.\. O. U. .\umbcr 475 



Black-billed and frequently occupying, as large wedge-shaped spots, 



the central portion of the feathers of chest and upper 

 breast, as well as throat. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: The nest proper, a 

 bowl of mud and grass, surrounded and arched by an 

 immense number of large and small sticks, is often the 

 size of a barrel! Entrance, a hole on the side. They 

 arc located in bushes or trees from s to 60 feet up 

 and with the bristling array of sticks pointing in all 

 directions present a formidable appearance. Er;cs : 

 6 to 9, usually 7. pale grayish or greenish regularly and 

 heavily blotched with shades of brown and purple, 

 sometimes hiding the ground color. 



Distribution. — Treeless or more sparsely wooded 

 districts of western North America, except coast 

 and interior valleys of California; north to north- 

 western .'Maska ; south to southern Arizona. New 

 Mexico (where breeding at 7,000 to 12,000 feet), and 

 western Te.xas ; east to western portion of the Great 

 Plains, and to Lake Winnipeg; rare or casual winter 

 visitant or straggler to southwest side of Hudson Bay, 

 Ontario, Michigan, northeastern Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, Iowa, eastern Nebraska, etc. 



Drawing by R. Bruce Horsfall 



MAGPIE (5 nat. size) 

 A mixture of shyness and boldness 



