114 COKVID^. 



that wc would not shoot many. Holes arc cut in many of 

 their buildings for the admission of some, and pieces of Avood 

 arc nailed up against them to support the nests of others. 

 At Christmas, that the birds may share their festivities and 

 enjoyments, they place a sheaf of corn at the end of their 

 houses," 



Fynes Moryson, who wrote a short account of Iceland 

 about 1602, states, " We have here no chattering Pie ;" but 

 Sir William Hooker, in his tour in 1809, remarks that a 

 tradition in Iceland says, the Magpie was imported into that 

 country by the English out of spite. 



Our Magpie is a native of the United States and North 

 America from Louisiana* to the Fur-countries ;-|- it exists in 

 the Rocky Mountains^ also, and has been found in that 

 direction as far as Kamtschatka. 



To return to the central portions of Europe : the Magpie 

 is there common. Southward, it is found in Spain, Pro- 

 vence, Italy, the Morea, Smyrna, Aleppo, in the country 

 between the Black and the Caspian Seas, in the southern 

 part of Russia and Siberia. Eastward from thence, though 

 it has not been found, I believe, in India, it exists in China 

 and in Japan. In the northern hemisphere of the globe, 

 therefore, the longitudinal range of the Magpie is very 

 extensive. 



The beak is black ; the irides hazel ; the head, neck, back, 

 and upper tail-coverts, jet black ; rump greyish white ; the 

 scapulars pure white ; wing-coverts and tertials of a fine 

 shining blue ; the primaries black, with an elongated patch 

 of pure white on the inner web of each of the first ten feathers ; 

 the tail graduated, the outside feather on each side not ex- 

 ceeding five inches in length, the middle ones nearly eleven 

 inches long, in colour beautifully iridescent, Avith blue and 

 purple near the end, and green from thence to the base. 



* i^udubon. t Richardson. t Nutlali. 



