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a species very closely allied to our Azure-winged Magpie, differing only very slightly in coloration, 

 and in having the central rectrices broadly terminated with white, inhabits Eastern Siberia, 

 China, and Japan ; and throughout the vast tract of country intervening between there and 

 South-western Europe neither this species nor any other at all closely allied to it is to be 

 met with ; nor can I at all account for the fact that two so very closely allied forms should 

 inhabit countries so far apart. I have compared two specimens from China, in the British 

 Museum, and two from Japan, one in the British Museum and the other in the collection of 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, with the series of Cyanopica cooki, and find that the eastern species has 

 invariably a broad terminal patch of white on the central rectrices, whereas in C. cooki it is 

 almost always totally absent, one specimen alone having it very slightly developed. The Spanish 

 bird is, moreover, much browner on the back, the eastern birds having that portion of the body 

 greyish, but very faintly tinged with brown in some specimens. In size they vary very slightly 

 indeed, and on taking the average of the entire series of each species the difference is scarcely 

 perceptible. First discovered in Spain in 1831 by Captain S. E. Cook, it has since been found 

 to be common in many parts of that country, but is exceedingly local. The only part where 

 I met with it was in the Royal Gardens, close to Madrid, where I took several nests within 

 sound of the bells of the capital, and, indeed, within twenty minutes' walk of the centre of 

 the city. I never saw it near Aranjuez ; and Lord Lilford also writes (Ibis, 1866, p. 378), " it 

 is a remarkable fact that Cyanopica cooki should be quite unknown in that neighbourhood. 

 I could not discover that any of the keepers or woodmen were acquainted with it, although 

 it is so plentiful about Madrid, at a distance of about twenty miles — the only reason I can 

 imagine to account for its absence being the want of the evergreen oak, to which it certainly 

 exhibits a very remarkable partiality." I am further indebted to his Lordship for the following 

 notes respecting this species : — " The local distribution of this bird is certainly one of the most 

 curious points in its natural economy. In the pine-forests and open cork-dotted monte of the 

 Coto de Donana I did not meet with it, whilst in the Coto del Bey it is in certain spots very 

 abundant, the character of these two districts being very similar, though the pine-woods of the 

 latter are not so extensive or so dense as those of the former. About Cordova, and indeed in all 

 the wooded parts of the Sierra Morena, it positively swarms, whilst in the vicinity of Algeciras 

 and Gibraltar it seems to be quite unknown, and I know many officers who have spent their 

 term of service on the Bock, and been on shooting-expeditions thence near and far to north-east 

 and west, without even seeing a bird of this species. I speak under correction ; but my impression 

 is that it is not met with to the south of the great southernmost chain of mountains from 

 Tarifa, or perhaps I may say from Cadiz to Cartagena. North of the Sierra Morena it abounds 

 in most parts of Estremadura, La Mancha, and New Castile, though absent at Aranjuez, in the 

 latter province ; it is not found in the neighbourhood of the city of Valencia, and is, I think, 

 uncommon in most parts of that province. We found it at the foot of the northern side of the 

 Guadarama, at San Ildefonso, in Old Castile; I have heard of its occurrence near Salamanca 

 and in the neighbourhood of Leon, the most northerly locality for the species with which I am 

 acquainted. I never met with or heard of its occurrence in Galicia, Asturias, the Basque pro- 

 vinces, Aragon, or Catalonia." Major Irby informs me that it does not occur nearer Gibraltar 

 than the vicinity of Seville; and Mr. Howard Saunders writes (Ibis, 1871, p. 222) that "though 



