316 MAGPIE. 
ent authors as slender; but:I saw no appearance of this ir those I 
examined. . 
The female is considerably darker than the male, and about two 
inches longer. : 
——~+_~-__— , 
-MAGPIE.—CORVUS PICA.—Fic. 155. 
Arct. Zool.No. 136.—Lath. i. 392. — Buff. iii. 85. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1333. 
PICA CAUDATA.—Ray.* 
sa 
Tuis bird is much better known in Europe than in this country, 
where it has not been long discovered ; although it is now found to in- 
habit a wide extent of territory, and in great numbers. The drawing 
was taken from a very beautiful specimen, sent from the Mandan nation, 
on the Missouri, to Mr. Jefferson, and by that gentleman presented to 
Mr. Peale of this city, in whose Museum it lived for several months, 
and where I had an opportunity of examining it. On carefully com- 
paring it with the European Magpie in the same collection, no material 
@ * The common Magpie of Europe is typical of that section among the Corvide, 
to which the name of Pica has been given. They retain the form of the bill as in 
_ Corvus ; their whole members are weaker ; the feathers on the rump are more lax 
and puffy, and the tail is always very Jengthened. a4 ae ee 
The Appendix to Captain Bian’ Narrative, by Mr. Sabine, first gave rise to 
the suspicion, that two very nearly allied species, of Magpie were found in the 
northern parts of America; and that gentleman has accordingly described the spe- 
cimens killed at Cumberland House, during the first arctic. expedition, under. the 
name of Corvus Hudsonicus —of which the following are the principal distinctions 
—and he seems to consider that bird more particularly confined to the more 
northern parts of the continent, while the other was met with in the United States 
and the Missouri conntry : ‘ 
“The Hudson’s Bay Magpie is of less size in all its parts than the common 
Magpie, except in its tail, which exceeds that of its congener in length; but the 
most remarkable and obvious difference is, in a loose tuft of grayish and white 
feathers on the back. Length of the body, exclusive of the tail, seven inches, that 
of the tail from eleven to twelve inches, that of the common being from nine to ten.”” 
In the Northern Zoology, Corvus Hudsonicus is quoted asa synonym. The 
authors remark, “This bird, so common in Europe, is equally plentiful in the in- 
terior prairie lands of America; but it is singular, that, though it abounds on the 
shéres of Sweden, and other, maritime parts of the Old World, it is very rare on 
the Atlantic, eastward of the Mississippi, or Lake Winipeg.” “The manners of 
‘the American bird are precisely what we have been accusiomed to observe in the , 
English one. On comparing its eggs with those of the European bird, they were. 
found to be longer and narrower ; and though the colors are the same, the blotches 
are larger and more diffused.” ‘ 
The distinctions mentioned by Mr. Sabine seem very trivial; indeed they may 
be confined entirely to a less size. The grayish tuft of feathers on the rump is the 
same in the common Magpie of Britain. Ihave had an opportunity of examining 
only one North American specimen, which is certainly smaller, but in no other 
respect different. The authors of the Northern Zoology mention their having 
compared arctic specimens with one from the interior of China, and they found no 
difference, The geographical distribution may therefore extend to a greater range 
than was supposed, — Europe, China, and America. — Ep, 
‘ 
