118 Mr. R. Swinhoe's Ornithological Notes made at Chefoo. 



tinctly larger bill than Shanghai examples. It affects large 

 trees, is more open in its habits, and is frequently to be seen 

 in parties in company with the pied species. 1 was in hopes 

 it might turn out to be the C. melanocephalus , Vieill., which 

 is expressly stated to come from China ; but on turning to tlie 

 Hist. Nat. des Ois. d'Afrique, plate 58, I find the figure of a 

 bird with the throat and cheeks black ; and in the description 

 of the species I read, '' Le dessus de la tete, les joues et la 

 gorge d^un noir mat.'' In these respects our bird does not 

 difffer from the more southern species ; and I scarcely think 

 superior size, or variation in manners, justifies specific separa- 

 tion. The bird at Chefoo is called the Lan Ya-tcheo, or Blue 

 Magpie, and lays eggs nearly as big as her pied relative. Its 

 nest is small, shaped like that of a Crow, without canopy, and 

 often built on large trees at no great distance from that of the 

 Pied Magpie. When deserted they also are sometimes taken 

 possession of by the Red-leg Falcon. Dr. Williamson induced 

 the boys of the village Tung-Hing (where he resided, super- 

 intending a missionary station) to collect birds' eggs for me. 

 These brought me ten eggs of this species on the 18th of 

 May. One egg was small, with a greenish ground-colour, 

 much as that represented in Dr. Breeds ' Birds of Europe ' 

 (i. p. 142) for the egg of C cooki, Bp., of Spain and Portugal. 

 The others were a good deal larger, more elliptical, and more 

 like those of the Pied Magpies, of a lighter colour, and covered 

 with larger and darker spots. They are nearer that of the 

 Alpine Chough (see p. 154, of the work referred to) . M. Tac- 

 zanowski, of Warsaw, has sent me a Blue Magpie from the 

 river Onon, in Russian Mantchuria. This is of the size and 

 proportions of the bird that abounds near Shanghai, and ex- 

 tends along the alluvial banks of the Yangtsze for over 1000 

 miles, but is paler and greyer, and has a more boreal ap- 

 pearance. A specimen from Hakodadi, N. Japan, in Mr. 

 Howard Saunders's collection, is like the Shanghai bird. On 

 the strength of this information this larger bird of Chefoo is 

 almost worthy of recognition as a distinct race. 



50. Pied Magpie. Pica media, Blyth. 



The Ya-tcheo (M.D. 11811, 80791), or Crow-bird, as this 



