272 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



FAMILY CORVID^E. CROWS, JAYS, MAGPIES, ETC. 

 SUBFAMILY GARRULIN^E. MAGPIES AND JAYS. 



GENUS PICA BRISSON. 

 PICA PICA HUDSONICA. (SAB.) 



196. American Magpie. (475) 



Bill, black ; head, neck, fore-part of the breast and back, black, glossed 

 with green and blue ; middle of the back, grayish-white ; scapulars, white ; 

 smaller wing coverts, black, secondary and primary coverts, glossed with green 

 and blue ; primaries, black, glossed with green, their inner webs white except 

 at the end ; secondaries bright blue changing to green, the inner webs greenish- 

 black ; tail, glossed with green, changing to bluish-purple and dark green at 

 the end ; breast and sides, pure white ; legs, abdomen, lower tail coverts, black. 

 Length, 18-20 inches. 



HAB. Northern and Western North America, casually east and south to 

 Michigan (accidentally in Northern Illinois in winter) and the Plains, and in the 

 Rocky Mountains to New Mexico and Arizona. 



Nest, in a tree, ten or twelve feet or more from the ground, built of coarse 

 sticks, plastered with mud and lined with hair, feathers and qther soft 

 materials. 



Eggs, five or six, greenish, thickly shaded and dashed with purplish-brown. 



The gaudy, garrulous Magpie is, on the American continent, pecu- 

 liar to the north and west, and is mentioned as a bird of Ontario 

 on the authority of Mr. C. J. Bampton, Registrar of the District of 

 Algoma, who reports it as a rare winter visitor at Sault Ste. Marie. 

 It has been seen by surveying parties along the northern tier of 

 States, and is said to be possessed of all the accomplishments attrib- 

 uted to the British Magpie, whose history has been so often written. 

 Mr. Trippe, who found it breeding in Colorado, describes the nest as 

 being dome shaped, having two apertures, one at each side, so that 

 when the bird enters by the front it leaves by the one at the back, 

 and while sitting on the nest the long tail projects outside. 



The Magpie is a gay, dashing fellow, whom we always like to see 

 in his native haunts, and we should welcome him to the woods of 

 Southern Ontario should his curiosity lead him this way. In Alaska 

 he is common in certain districts, though not generally distributed. 

 His long tail, showy colors, and cunning ways always gain him 

 attention wherever he appears. 



In the rural districts of Scotland these birds are regarded with 

 suspicion, from the belief that they know more than birds ought to 



