THE INSULAR HORNED LARK. 349 



Two sets, each containing three eggs, now in the United States National 

 Museum collection, taken by Mr. Henshaw on June 3 and 5, 1875, on Santa 

 Cruz Island, California, measure, respectively, 22.10 by 15.49, 21.59 by 15.24, 

 and 21.59 by 15.24 millimetres, or 0.87 by 0.61, 0.85 by 0.60, and 0.85 by 0.60 

 inch. The other set measures 20.32 by 15.49, 20.07 by 15.49, and 19.05 by 

 15.24 millimetres; or 0.80 by 0.61, 0.79 by 0.61, and 0.75 by 0.60 inch. They 

 resemble the eggs of the other subspecies of this genus, and no specimen has 

 been fig-ured. 



Family CORVID^-E. Crows, Jays, Magpies, etc. 

 137. Pica pica hudsonica (Sabine). 



AMERICAN MAGPIE. 



Gorvus hiidsonictis Sabine, Appeudix Franklin's Journey, 1823, 25, 671. 

 Pica pica hudsonica Jordan, Manual of Vertebrates, ed. 4, 1884, 94. 

 (B 432, C 233, R 286, C 347, U 475.) 



Geographical range: Middle and western North America; from Alaska and the 

 Alaskan Peninsula south through British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, northeastern 

 California, northern and middle Nevada, northern Arizona, and northern New Mexico; 

 east to eastern Colorado, western Nebraska, western South and North Dakota, and western 

 Manitoba, as well as the intervening regions, as Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho; 

 casually straggling in winter to western Kansas, eastern Nebraska, northwestern Iowa, 

 Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada. 



The American or Black-billed Magpie is one of the best knoAvn and most 

 characteristic birds of our western avifauna. It is generally a resident and 

 breeds wherever found, excepting perhaps in the extreme northern portions of 

 its range in Alaska and along the eastern border (the regions of the Great Plains), 

 where it occasionally wanders eastward in the late fall and winter, probably 

 driven away from its usual haunts by scarcity of food or severe storms, which 

 so frequently occur in these sections of country. 



The American Magpie is a handsome and striking-looking bird, certain to be 

 noticed by anyone, even if not ornithologically inclined. It is extremely pert 

 in its general bearing and movements, both on the ground and in the trees, and 

 the strongly contrasting colors of its plumage are sure to di-aw attention to it at 

 once. On the wing, however, it shows to less advantage; its flight is slow and 

 wavering, and in windy weather evidently laborious. The long, wedge-shaped 

 tail seems then to be decidedly in the way and a positive disadvantage, causing 

 it no little trouble in flying from point to point, and in such weather it will only 

 leave through necessity the sheltered bottom lands it usually frequents. 



Although more or less quarrelsome, it is social in disposition and likes to 

 be in the company of its kind. I have frequently seen from twelve to thirty 

 feeding together near a slaughterhouse or some other locality where food was 

 abundant; but such gatherings are oftener met with in the late fall and winter 



