36 Mr. Blyth's Commentary 



Prof. Schlegel. Though found so low as Mergui (the black 

 race), I have been assured that it does not occur in the Ma- 

 layan Peninsula, at least at Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. 

 Neither does it rid Vultures and Adjutants of their parasites (as 

 Temminck avers); but T have seen a solitary Gyps bengalensis 

 tearing at a bit of some animal refuse, which was teased and 

 tormented by a party of some twenty of these Crows, some 

 alighting on its back and pecking at it, and trying every 

 device to draw its attention from what it held under one foot. 



664. CORVUS FRUGILEGUS. 



The true British Rook, distinct alike from C agricola of Pa- 

 lestine and C. pastinatoi- of China and Japan. 



666. NUCIFRAGA HEMISPILA. 



Mr. Hodgson gives two coloured figures of a fine allied 

 species of Nutcracker, which is wholly unspotted; I shall 

 term it 



NUCIFRAGA IMMACULATA, Sp. UOV. 



Uniform ruddy-brown, with darker cap and blackish wings 

 without markings ; lower tail-coverts white, and all the rectrices 

 but the middle pair tipped with white for two-thirds of the 

 length of the feather on the outermost pair, and successively 

 less on the others. 



668. Pica bottanensis, Deless. ; Gould, B. As. pt. xv. pi. 



This is not P. tihotana, Hodgson; for the latter is figured by 

 that naturalist as having no white on the scapulars. The Af- 

 ghan Magpie, P. bactriana, Bonap., hardly differs from the 

 European race, but is duller in colouring, with the narrow band 

 above the tail white instead of grey. P. bottanensis is consider- 

 ably larger, with proportionally longer wings, shorter tail, and 

 much larger feet. Mr. Swinhoe has made some remarks on 

 the Magpies of China, Amuria, Kamtschatka, Japan, and 

 Formosa (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 303). P. bottanensis is the most 

 distinct from the others of Europe and Asia, next to P. tibetana. 

 The last is carefully figured in one of Mr. Hodgson's drawings 

 in the British Museum, with the remarkable peculiarity before 

 noticed of having no white on the scapulars ; the tail also is 



