

PIE. 321 



Dresser and Mr. Sharpe, two of the most recent investiga- 

 tors of the subject the one in his well-known ' Birds of 

 Europe', and the other in his ' Catalogue of the Birds 

 in the British Museum ' (iii. pp. 6266) agree in refusing 

 them that rank, though more or less doubtfully allowing the 

 Pica leucoptera of Central Asia to be a local race or sub- 

 species, while on the other hand Dr. Finsch considers it a 

 very good species *. With the possible exception then of the 

 undefined territory occupied by this form, we may conclude 

 that the greater part of the rest of Asia belonging to the 

 Palaearctic Region, to about lat. 60 N. t that is, from Persia 

 to Kamchatka and Japan is occupied by our own species, 

 which also occurs throughout China, with its islands 

 Hainan I and Formosa. Crossing Behring's Strait a Pie is 

 found inhabiting the western part of North America from 

 Alaska, and some of its outlying islands as Ounga and 

 Kodiak, as far south as Arizona, and stretching eastward 

 to the upper waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone. This 

 bird has been by many ornithologists regarded as a distinct 

 species under the name of Pica hudsonia, and much inge- 

 nuity has been exercised to establish that view ; but none 

 of the differences assigned (cf. Pr. Max, Journ. fur Orn. 

 1856, p. 204) seem to be constant, and even Messrs. Dresser 

 arid Sharpe are at one in considering it specifically identical 

 with our own bird, the longitudinal range of which in the 

 northern hemisphere is therefore very extensive. 



Afghanistan, P. bottanensis from Bhotan, P. media from China and P. japonica 

 from Japan (cf. G. R. Gray, Hand-List, ii. p 10). There is also Mr. Hodgson's 

 P. tibetana (Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 2, iii. p. 203) which, according to Blyth 

 (Ibis, 1867, p. 36), should have no white on the scapulars, but herein there 

 seems to be some mistake. 



* It is described by Mr. Sharpe (op. clt.) as being similar to P. rustica, "but 

 having the white on the qnills extended sometimes to the very tip of the inner 

 web, never reaching less than to 0'3 inch of the tip ; on the throat the base of 

 the feathers white ; tail in adult bird coppery green." 



t Mr. Seebohm was informed of its occasional occurrence on the Jennesei so far 

 as 69^. As in Lapland it will probably extend its range as settlements increase. 



I In Hainan, says Swinhoe, its introduction was effected about A.D. 1450 

 a singular parallel to its appearance in Ireland some two hundred years later. 



In California however there is what is often deemed a second species, 

 P. niittalli, easily recognized by its yellow bill and the bare, yellow skin round 



