578 



U. S. p. R. R. EXP, AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



List of specimens. 



PICA NUTTALLI, And. 



Yellow-billed Magpie 



Pica nutlalli, Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 45D ; pi. 362.— Ib. Syn. 1839, 152.— Ib. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 104 ; 



pi. 228.— Bon. List, 1838.— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 383.— Nuttall, Man. I, 2a ed. 1840,236.— 



Newberry, Rep. P. R. R. VI, iv, 1857, 84. 

 Clcptes nuUalli, Gambel, J. A. N. Sc. Ph. 2d Series, I, 1847, 46. 



Sp. Ch. — Bill, and naked skin behind the eye, bright yellow ; otherwise similar to P. hudsonica. Length, 17 ; wing, 8 ; 

 tail, 10. 



Hab. — California. 



This species, in every appreciable respect, is jirecisely similar to the common magpie, with 

 the exception of the hill and naked skin around and behind the eye, which are bright yellow. 

 Sometimes this is rendered darker from the fact that the transparency of the horny covering of 

 the bill allows the bone to be seen through it. The size is rather smaller, but this may be the 

 result of its more southern locality. It is a very serious question, whether the bird is anything 

 more than a permanently yellow-billed variety of the common bird. It is well known that in 

 PsilorMnvs morio, and other garruline birds, the bill may be either yellow or black, almost in 

 the same brood of young ; and if magpies with these differences were habitually associated 

 throughout the continent, there would probably be no hesitation in combining them. The 

 restriction of the yellow billed magpie to the coast region of California, where it is unmixed 

 with black hilled individuals, except in the northern portion of the State, is an interesting fact. 



