294 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Subfamily GARRULIN^. Jays and Pies. 

 Genus Pica Cuvier. 

 207. {475). Pica pica hudsonica {Sahine) . American Magpie. 



There have been no records of the occurrence of the Magpie in 

 Iowa during recent years, and if any are taken they must be con- 

 sidered only as accidental stragglers from the northwest. In the 

 early days the occurrence of the Magpie in the state was not 

 uncommon. Thomas Say noted the bird at Engineers' Canton- 

 ment in winter, stating that it " retired northward March 23, 

 1820" (Long's Exp., i8ig-2o). In 1843 Audubon says that at 

 Fort Croghan (near Omaha), " I saw two Magpies in a cage that 

 had been caught in nooses by the legs" (Journals, i, pp. 480-1). 

 F. V. Hayden states: "I have never observed them below 

 Council Bluffs, and from thence to the mountains they increase 

 in numbers" (Trans. Am. Philos. Soc, xii, 1863, p. 171); "known 

 to have been taken in Lee county " (Parker, Am. Nat., v, 187 1, 

 p. 169). Dr. Elliott Coues states: " In ascending the Missouri 

 I saw the first Magpie near Sioux City, Iowa, a point immedi- 

 ately on the border of its eastward dispersion" (Birds of the N. 

 W., 1874, p. 212). John Krider reports: "I was fortunate 

 enough to find one specimen of this bird in the spring of 1875 in 

 Winnebago county, Iowa " (Forty Years' Notes, p. 54). 



Morton E. Peck writes: "A specimen was taken in a steel 

 trap in Blackhawk county by a trapper who was perfectly famil- 

 iar with the bird in the West. This is an old record, perhaps 

 thirty years old, but I am sure it is quite authentic." 



' ' The only record I know of for Lee county is the mounted 

 bird now in possession of Dr. R. Heiser of Keokuk. It was 

 killed four miles west of the city by a Mr. Turner, a farmer. It 

 was in the winter time and the bird came about the barnyard, 

 but I cannot give the date. It was in the '70's, I think " (E. S. 

 Currier). " A mounted specimen, destroyed before I saw it, was 

 obtained in Lee county, close to Keokuk, about 1893. The bird 

 is so peculiar I don't think there can be any mistake of the facts. 

 I made careful inquiries " (W. E. Praeger). 



"I have no record of birds taken in Iowa, but the Magpie 

 years ago was not uncommon here (Sioux City), so I have been 

 told. The specimen I have measured was shot in Nebraska just 



