108 CORVID/E. 



Pica. Generic ChavacLers. — Beak strong, compressed laterally, slightly 

 arched and hooked at the tip. Nostrils basal, covered by short stiff' feathers, 

 directed forwards. Wings short and rounded ; first quill-feather very short, 

 the fourth or fifth the longest in the wing. Tarsus longer than the middle toe. 

 Tail long and graduated. 



The Long-tailed Pie kind among the Crows, or Corvida, 

 admitted as a section by M. Temminck, have been advanced 

 to generic distinction by Brisson, Dumeri], Cuvier, and 

 Vieillot ; and in this generic separation these systematic 

 naturalists have been followed by most recent writers on 

 the subject. The necessity for such subdivision has been 

 long felt, and even anticipated : our Magpie is the Pica 

 caudata of Gesner and Ray ; fourteen or sixteen species of 

 the genus are now known and admitted by Wagler and 

 others, of which one only is British. 



Although no bird in our catalogue is better known than 

 the Magpie, yet accustomed only, as we are, to see it at a 

 distance in the fields, or penned up in a cage where its 

 plumage is soiled and disfigured by confinement, its singular 

 beauty is almost unsuspected ; yet with an agreeable variety 

 and arrangement in the principal colours, the black and the 

 white are as pure, as the green, the blue, and the purple, with 

 their ever-varying reflections, are brilliant. 



With a handsome exterior, the Magpie is, however, a sus- 

 picious character ; and though cautious to a degi'ee, it rarely 

 removes far from the habitations of man. Its attachment, 

 as observed by Montagu, " is governed by self-interest ; it 

 is a great enemy to the husbandman and the preserver of 

 game ; but has cunning enough to evade their wrath. No 

 animal food comes amiss to its carnivorous appetite ; young 

 poultry, eggs, young lambs, and even weakly sheep it will 

 attempt to destroy by first plucking out their eyes ; the 

 young of hares, rabbits, and feathered game, share the same 

 fate ; fish, carrion, insects, and fruit, and, lastly, grain, when 

 nothing else can be got. It is an artful noisy bird, pro- 



