722 PIE 



betoken, for some of these versions contradict one another in details, 

 though all agree in this that the sight of a single Pie unquestionably 

 forebodes sorrow. 



The Pie belongs to the Corvidte (CROW), and is the Corvus pica 

 of Linnaeus, the Pica caudata, P. melanoleuca or P. rustica of modern 

 ornithologists, who have recognized it as forming a distinct genus, 

 but the number of species thereto belonging has been a fruitful 

 source of discussion. Examples from the south of Spain differ 

 slightly from those inhabiting the rest of Europe, and in some points 

 more resemble the P. mauritanica of north-western Africa ; but that 

 species has a patch of bare skin of a fine blue colour behind the 

 'eye, and much shorter wings. No fewer than five species have 

 been discriminated from various parts of Asia, extending to Japan ; 

 but only one of them, the P. leucoptera of Turkestan and Tibet, has 

 of late been admitted as valid. In the west of North America, from 

 Alaska to New Mexico, as well as in some of its islands, a Pie is 

 found which extends to the upper valleys of the Missouri and the 

 Yellowstone, even appearing so far to the eastward as Cumberland 

 House, in the Province of Winnipeg, and in the State of Michigan, 

 and was long thought entitled to specific distinction as P. hudsonia ; 

 but its claim thereto is now disallowed by most American orni- 

 thologists, and it can hardly be deemed even a geographical variety 

 of the Old- World form. In California, however, there is a perma- 

 nent race if not a good species, P. nuttalli, easily distinguishable 

 by its yellow bill and the bare yellow skin round its eyes ; and 

 it is a curious fact that on two occasions in the year 1867 a bird 

 apparently similar was observed in Great Britain (Zoologist, ser. 

 2, pp. 706, 1016). 1 



More or less allied to the genus Pica are some forms that can 



hardly be separated from 

 JAYS, as for instance the 

 species of Cissa, before men- 

 tioned (page 470), concerning 

 the affinity of which opinions 

 have differed much, but Mr. 

 '~ . . Gates (Fauna Br. Ind. Birds, 



CISSA. (After Swainson.) A % , , . . 



i. p. 28), declares in favour 



of its Pie-like position. On the other hand Dendrocitta with several 

 kindred genera, all belonging to the Indian Region, are with less 

 doubt referred to the neighbourhood of Pica, as also is Cyanopica? 



1 Dr. Diederich (Ornis, 1889, pp. 280-332, tab. iv.) has treated at length and 

 illustrated by a map the geographical distribution of the genus Pica. 



2 Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 67), calls this genus Cyanopolius, citing 

 as his authority a passage wherein that name does not occur. Bonaparte seems 

 to have used it only in manuscript (see his Consp. Av. i. p. 282 ; and Waterhouse, 

 Index Generum Avium, p. 59, note). 



