262 WANDERINGS OF A 



with fallen masses of rock, which (as before observed) were 

 covered with glazed incrustation, owing to. the action of the 

 weather, which had formed a stalagmitic deposit on their 

 surface. Boulders of granite, with hornblende predominating, 

 were also often observed. It was during this day's march 

 that I met with the magpie for the first time in Asia, and 

 quite unexpectedly, for, judging from former experience, the 

 locality seemed unsuited to its habits ; but nevertheless, here 

 it is found, and the Tibetan magpie prefers the bleak and 

 sterile regions of Ladakh and Tibet to the wooded and culti- 

 vated tract of Cashmere and the Lower Himalayas. Mr. 

 Hodgson has separated this species from the British bird, as he 

 has done ravens of India and the Himalayas, and, to my mind, 

 on very doubtful grounds, inasmuch as he makes no allow- 

 ance whatever for climate and locality j and because the 

 Tibetan magpie is only a little larger, and has not so much 

 white on the quills, he has given it another name ; conse- 

 quently, reviewing the magpies of Europe and Asia, we find a 

 host of difi'erent species, all so closely similar, both in the 

 regions they frequent and in their plumage, that unless we 

 draw very fine distinctions, I see no possibility of separating 

 one from the other. 



I conceive the term race or variety as applicable to 

 the following, but that they are what naturalists usually 

 consider distinct species, I cannot allow. The Pica hadriana 

 is acknowledged by Mr. Blyth to be a variety or race of the 

 European magpie; also the Chinese variety he considers almost 

 identical. The Bootan bird is at present shown to be the same 

 as the P. megaloptera, and that we are now considering. It is 

 a great pity, where a species is found somewhat different from 

 a given type, that we should not allow it a place among the 

 varieties of that type and species, imtU such time as proper 



