Jan., 1909. Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin — Cory. 543 



The members of the family which occur within our Hmits prefer 

 wooded parts of the country. They are omnivorous, eating grain, 

 seeds, insects, and fruit, as well as eggs and young birds, etc. 



Subfamily GARRULINiE. Magpies and Jays. 



Genus PICA Brisson. 



217. Pica pica hudsonica (Sab.). 



American Magpie. 



Distr.: Greater portion of western North America, principally 

 in sparsely wooded districts, from southern Arizona and New Mexico 

 to northwestern Alaska, east to Lake Winnipeg and the western por- 

 tion of the Great Plains; accidental in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, 

 Nebraska, and Iowa. 



Adult male : Whole head, neck, breast and back, black, tinged with 

 purple and gold when held in the light; belly, white; lower belly and 

 crissum, black; a large white shoulder patch; outer primaries, mostly 

 white, rest of quills, steel blue and greenish on outer webs; tail, very 

 long, showing iridescent blue, green and purple; bill, black. 



Not to be confounded with any other species except the western 

 yellow-billed species, from which it differs in the color of bill. 



Wing, about 8; tail, 11 to 12 inches long; bill, 1.15. 



The American Magpie is of accidental occurrence in northern 

 Illinois and Wisconsin. Kennicott * in 1854 considered it " not un- 

 common in winter" in Cook Co., Illinois. Mr. James O. Dunn in the 

 Auk (Vol. XII, 1895, P- 395) states: "On the morning of Oct. 17,1892, 

 Mr. Wallace Craig observed a magpie {Pica pica hudsonica) in a small 

 grove not far from the World's Fair (Chicago) . It was rather shy and 

 was followed from tree to tree by some Blue Jays and House 

 Sparrows. It may have been an escaped cage bird." 



According to Kumlien and Hollister it is a rare winter visitant 

 in Wisconsin. They write: 



" The Magpie was doubtless formerly of more frequent occurrence 

 in Wisconsin than during recent years. Dr. Hoy states that two 

 were shot at Caledonia in December, 1848, and one was obtained at 

 Bailey's Harbor on Lake Michigan, November 15, 1849, by a gentle- 

 man from Racine. Mr. J. N. Clark of Meridian writes us that one 

 was captured in a trap in Dunn County in 1870 and that he himself 

 saw one in the same locality, at close gun range, in February, 1884. 



* Trans. III. State Agr. Soc. for 185.^-54-55, P- S8s. 



