100 PASSERES. 



to the Eastern Blue Magpie, that it is doubtful whether they axe 

 more than suhspecifically distinct. The Spanish bird is browner, 

 and the white tips to the central tail-feathers only occur accidentally. 

 It has also been recorded from Morocco. It has no other nearer 

 ally than the species belonging to the genera Pica and Urocissa. 

 The Spanish Blue Magpie was unknown to Temminck in 1820, but 

 is included in the third volume of his ' Manuel d'Ornithologie ' pub- 

 lished in 1835, having been mentioned in 1827 in Wagler's ' Systema 

 Avium' from an example in the Paris Museum. That the area of 

 distribution of these two species was once continuous is a self- 

 evident proposition. That the range of the Blue Magpie once 

 extended from Spain to Japan, but that the species has been 

 exterminated in the rest of Southern Europe and in Western Siberia, 

 is a possible but highly improbable hypothesis. That once upon a 

 time there was an emigration of Blue Magpies from Eastern Siberia 

 to Western Europe, as there has been twice within the present 

 century of Sand-Grouse, is a much more probable theory; but the 

 most probable explanation of this anomalous fact of geographical 

 distribution is the obvious one that the Chinese Blue Magpie was 

 brought from China to Spain, precisely in the same manner as the 

 Chinese Hinged Pheasant was introduced into England. It has 

 probably become browner since its introduction in consequence of 

 the greater rainfall of Spain, and it may have lost the white tips to 

 the centre tail-feathers by protective selection. The young in first 

 plumage of the Japanese Blue Magpie have not only all the tail- 

 feathers but also the tertials tipped with white. 



68. GAREULUS BRANDTI. 



(BRANDT'S JAY.) 



Garrulus hrandtii, Eversmann, Add. Pallas. Zoogr. iii. p. 8 (1S43). 



Brandt's Jay differs from the Common and Japanese Jays in 

 having the ground-colour of the forehead, crown, nape, and mantle 

 chestnut-bufiF, and the outer webs of the primaries pale grey. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, iv. pi. 255. 



Brandt's Jay is a resident in Yezzo, but has not been known to 

 cross the Straits of Tsugaru. There are several examples in the 

 Swinhoe collection from Hakodadi (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1875, p. 450) 

 and one in the Pryer collection from the same locality. 



