ZOOLOGY. 213 



never seen this bird feed on anything but seeds and berries, and it rarely descends to the 

 ground, never frequenting river banks or other places for dead fish and carrion, like crows. 

 About the tops of the trees it may be seen extracting the seeds from cones; hanging head 

 downwards like the chickadees. Its cry is loud and harsh like the crows, and its flight rapid 

 and steady, it having much larger wings than the jay. I have had no opportunity of observing 

 its nest, which is probably built in high trees; perhaps burrowed in decayed wood, as with the 

 European species. C. 



I have not myself obtained it on the Pacific Side, but I was fortunate enough to get a speci 

 men on Milk river, Nebraska, about 200 miles east of the Rocky mountains. The only bird of 

 the kind I obtained I shot while it was flying past me, and as it was the only bird of the species 

 I have seen I am unable to give any account of its habits. S. 



Sub-Family GARRULINAE. T h e Jays. 

 PICA HUDSONICA, Bo nap. 



Magpie. 



CorvusPica, FORSTER, Phil. Trans. LXXII, 1772, 382.~Wii.s3N, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 75; pi. xxxv. BON. Obs. 

 Wills. 1825, No. 40. IB. Syn. 1828, 57. NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 219. AUD. Orn Biog. TV, 1833 

 408; pi. 357. Not of Linnasus. 



Carvus hudsonica, Jos. SABIXE, App. Narr. Franklin s Journey, 1823, 25, 671. 



Pica hudsonica, BONAP. List, 1838. IB. Conspectus, 1850, 383. MAXIM. Eeise Nord. Amer. I, 1839, 508. IB. 

 Cabanis Journ. 1856, 197. NEWBERRY, Zool. Cal. and Or. Eoute, Rep. P. R. R., VI, iv, 1854, 

 84. BAIRD, Gen. Rep. Birds, 576. 



Cleptes hudsonicus, GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. 2d Ser. I, Dec. 1847, 47. 



Pica melanoleuca, &quot; VIEILL.&quot; AUD. Syn. 1839, 157. IB. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 99; pi. 227. 



SP. CH. Bill and naked skin behind the eye, black. General color, black. The belly, scapulars, and inner webs of the 

 primaries, white; hind part of back grayish; exposed portion of the tail feathers glossy green, tinged with purple and violet 

 near the end; wings glossed with green; the secondaries and tertials with blue; throat feathers spotted with white. Length, 

 19.00; wing, 8.50; tail, 11.00. 



Hub. The Arctic regions of North America. The United States from the High Central Plains to the Pacific, north of 

 California. 



This magpie is abundant throughout the central region of Oregon and Washington Territories. 

 On our journey across from the Mississippi I first saw this bird about 100 miles west of Fort 

 Union, the American Fur Company s trading post, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, although 

 one of our hunters told me that he saw one several weeks before in the middle of Minnesota. 

 As we approached the Rocky mountains they became more and more plentiful, until in the 

 mountains themselves, along the borders of streams, they were continually met with. They 

 are almost as abundant as far west as the Cascade mountains. The dense mass of forest here 

 met with affords a pretty effectual barrier to their passage. On Puget Sound, west of these 

 mountains, I did not observe a single bird of this species until August, 1856, after which time, 

 during the fall, they became moderately abundant. They appeared to have crossed over from 

 the east side of the mountains by some of the passes north of Mount Rainier, after the breeding 

 season had ceased in the central section. I obtained two more specimens from Bellingham bay, 

 near the 49th parallel north. An Indian from the northwest coast told me that this species is 

 common at Sitka. 



This bird is mischievous and gluttonous, but not so tame or so fond of the society of man as 



