AZUBE-WINGED MAGPIE. 5 



In its habits the Blue Magpie diiFers little from its congener, our 

 well-known British Bird, but Teniminck says that it more especially 

 feeds upon insects. 



According to M. Riocour it builds in Spain in trees; its nest com- 

 posed of slender sticks. He does not state the number of eggs, but 

 we may presume they are the same as our Magpie — five or six, rarely 

 seven, very rarely eight. 



Canon Tristram in his "Ornithology of Northern Africa," (Ibis, I860,) 

 records the occurrence of this species in Algeria: — "While searching 

 in the open wood I was startled by a long-tailed blue bird which I 

 felt certain must be the Blue Magpie (Pica Cooki). Not having heard 

 of it as an inhabitant of Algeria, I went eagerly in pursuit, and again 

 and again caught sight of it, but never within shot. It was wild 

 and wary, but took no long flights. I do not feel the slightest doubt 

 as to its being the Blue Magpie of Spain, probably only a straggler." 



It is also found in Portugal, as the E,ev. A. Smith informs us (Ibis, 

 1868). "This beautiful bird was the chief prize I proposed to my- 

 self to procure before I started for Portugal. But though I wandered 

 for days in search of it in the most likely spots, I never saw it 

 alive; indeed Prof. Bocage assured me that, though by no means rare, 

 it is very local, and of so exceedingly shy a nature, that it is seldom 

 seen, and that though he has employed collectors expressly to hunt 

 for it, he cannot obtain additions to the three specimens possessed by 

 the Lisbon Museum." 



Although it abounds in Spain, as we are informed in the most in- 

 teresting papers of Lord Lilford and Mr. Howard Saunders, on the 

 ornithology of that country, it appears even there to be local. 



Lord Lilford writes, (Ibis, 1866, p. 378,) "It is a remarkable fact, 

 that Cyanojnca Cooki should be quite unknown in the neighbourhood 

 of Aranjues. I could not discover that any of the keepers or wood- 

 men were acquainted with it (although it is so plentiful about Madrid) 

 at a distance of twenty miles. The only reason that I can imagine 

 to account for its absence, being the want of the evergreen oak, to 

 which it certainly exhibits a very remarkable partiality. Manuel re- 

 turned from Madrid bringing several eggs of this Magpie from the 

 Caso de Campo." 



Mr. Howard Saunders in the same journal for 1871, p. 222, remarks, 

 '' Cyanopica Cooki, ' Mohino, E.abilargo,' of the Spaniards, though 

 local, is extremely abundant in the wooded districts, becoming rare in 

 such cultivated portions to the east, as Valencia and Murcia. It breeds 

 in small colonies, making a nest somewhat like that of a Jay. I once 

 found seven eggs in one nest, but the usual number is five or six. 



