294 NOTES. 



have ever seen or heard of. I have a very perfect specimen now 

 before me, but the tail not quite fully developed, which measures 

 as follows : — Length, 21*5 ; wing, 10'5 ; tail from insertion 

 of feathers, 11*75 ; tarsus, 2*3. Bill straight from frontal bone 

 to point (measured with compass) 2*0. Has any one ever seen 

 a Pica rustica anything approaching these dimensions ? 



Mr. Sharpe gives the following dimensions of an adult male 

 from Sweden : — Length, 16'0 ; wing, 7*9 ; tail, 9*8 ; tarsus, 

 1*95 ; culmen, 1'5. Amongst the vast series of this species 

 examined by Mr. Sharpe only one single specimen, and that 

 from Central Asia, had a wing exceeding 8*7. That one spe- 

 cimen had a wing of 9 "3. Again from the forehead to the tips 

 of the longest tail-coverts the entire bird is velvet black, with 

 over the whole back rather faint metallic green reflections. 

 We know that in Pica rustica the rump varies from pure white 

 to dark grey, but has any one ever seen rustica with the whole 

 upper surface uniform black ? Again like mauritanica, bottan- 

 ensis has a distinct bare spot behind the eye, larger iu some, 

 smaller and partially overhung by feathers growing above it 

 in others, but always distinct and entirely wanting in all the 

 rustica, European and Asiatic, that I have examined. 



If after this explanation European writers still persist in 

 ignoring Pica bottanensis it will, at any rate, be no fault of mine. 

 It may indeed prove that Delessert's bottanensis (I have not 

 access to his original description) is not the bird we call botta- 

 nensis and not a good species, but the bird that inhabits the nor- 

 thern portion of Bhutan and Native Sikhim and Chinese Tibet 

 immediately north of these, the bird that I have above charac- 

 terized, is as good aud distinct a species as mauritanica. 



I mav add, for some confusion seems to exist on this point, 

 that this species does not get as far west as Ladakh, which 

 people commonly talk of as Tibet. In Afghanistan, Cashmere, 

 Ladakh, and Yarkand, and the countries lying between these, we 

 have races of rustica which have been separated as bactriana, 

 leucoptera, &c, but all with more or less white or grey upon 

 the rump, all wanting the bare spot behind the eye, and none 

 with wings exceeding, or in fact quite extending to, 9 inches. 

 So far as we know, no form of this Magpie occurs either in Nepal 

 or Kumaon, but Hodgson obtained one specimen, apparently 

 a young and imperfect bird, which he figured half size in his 

 plate No. 960, and of which he gives the length as only 20 

 inches and the wing 9*75 ; but the figure shows clearly the 

 unbroken black back, rump and upper tail-coverts. To this Hodg- 

 son gave the name of Pica tibetana, (a name I here repeat in case 

 Delessert's should prove inadmissible) and he has written across 

 the drawing " India House, June 1848, No. 12," so I suppose 

 there must be a copy of this drawing at home. It is not in- 



