194 



MAGPIES. 



CC, A. 



JB. MAGPIES AND JAYS. Garruliclae. 



Eather large birds, usually with bright or striking colors ; 

 249. bills, conical; nostrils concealed by- 



bristly feathers; wings, short, rounded; 

 tails, long, often rounded. Nests of 

 sticks, placed in trees or bushes; eggs, 

 3 to 10, whitish, buff or greenish, thick- 

 ly spotted with darker. Cries, harsh, 

 seldom very musical. Intelligent and 

 active ; somewhat gregarious ; not mi- 

 gratory. Flight, heavy and direct. 



a. Magpies. Pica. 



Large birds with short wings and 

 long, graduated tails; black and white. 



1. AMERICAN MAGPIE, P. hud- 

 soNicA. 20.00; black, glossed with green, purple, blue, and 

 violet; white on scapularies. Fig. 250. 



inner webs of secondaries, and 

 abdomen, fig. 251. Northern 

 and western N. A. ; casual east 

 to Mich, and northern 111. 



b. Banded Jays. 



Cyaiiiiocitta. CC, A, a, 1. 



Smaller; tail, shorter and rounded ; wings and tail more 

 or less banded with black ; head, crested. 



1. BLUE JAY, C. CKISTATA. 12.00; blue above, gray- 

 ish-white beneath; wing-band, tips of secondaries and prima- 

 ries, white; black about head as in fig. 252. Eastern N. A. 

 from Fla. northward. Abundant in woodlands and about 

 dwellings. With the harsh and well-known varied cries, has 

 a low song. 



1*. FLOPvIDA BLUE JAT, C. c. florincola. Small- 

 er than 1 and duller, more purplish-blue above. Fla. and 

 Gulf coast to southwestern Texas. 



