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Genus PICA. 



Pica, Brisson, Orn. ii. p. 35 (1760). 



Corvus apud Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 157 (1766). 



Garrulus apud Temminck, Man. d'Orn. iii. p. 63 (1835). 



Cleptes apud Gambel, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil. 2nd ser. 1847, p. 47. 



The Magpies resemble the Crows in many respects, differing chiefly in having a much more 

 elongated tail and shorter wings. Of the three species usually included in this genus, one, 

 Pica mauritanica, inhabits North-west Africa; the second, Pica nuttalli, is only found in the 

 western portion of the Nearctic Region, whereas the third, Pica rustica, ranges throughout the 

 Palsearctic and is also found in the Nearctic Eegion ; but it is doubtful if it ranges into the 

 Ethiopian Eegion. 



The Magpies are shy and wary birds ; but they frequent cultivated places close to human 

 habitations, as well as groves and woods. In some countries, however, where they are seldom 

 molested, they are almost as tame and impudent as Sparrows. Their flight is rather heavy, but 

 tolerably swift; and on the ground they walk, like Crows, with ease. They are noisy, and, 

 especially when distm-bed, utter a loud, harsh chattering cry. They feed on grain, fruit, 

 carrion, and any animal food they come across, as well as eggs and young birds, and are said 

 to feed also on fish on the coasts. They build a rather large nest of sticks, lined with roots and 

 grass, and domed with sticks, and deposit pale greenish or bluish-white eggs spotted with brown 

 or greenish brown. 



Pica rustica, the type of the genus, has the bill moderately long, straight, curved towards 

 the tip, rather stout at the base, the upper mandible slightly notched, gape-line nearly straight ; 

 nostrils basal, covered by stiff bristly feathers directed forwards ; wings moderately short, broad, 

 the first quill shorter than the inner secondaries, the second shorter than the eighth, the fourth 

 and fifth nearly equal, the latter longest ; tail long, much graduated ; tarsus stout, long, covered 

 in front with five or six large and three inferior scutellse ; toes moderate ; claws rather short, 

 stout, curved, acute. 



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