PICA. 35 j 



/'. Color chiefly blue. 



g\ Head, with conspicuous crest. 



Cyanocitta. (Page 353.) 



g 2 . Head without crest Aphelocoma. (Page 355.) 



/ z . Color chiefly green, with outer tail-feathers yellow. 



Xanthoura. (Page 358.) 



e 2 . Color dull slaty or grayish above, dull grayish or brownish 



beneath, the head partly white in adults. ( Young wholly 



dusky.) Perisoreus. (Page 358.) 



a 2 . Tail much shorter than wing; wing long and pointed, the primaries exceeding 

 longest secondaries by more than the length of the tarsus, the third, fourth, 

 and fifth quills longest. (Subfamily Corvince.) 

 b 1 . Wing 9.00, or more; plumage entirely glossy black (in North American 

 species) ; bill compressed, much higher than broad. 



Corvus. (Page 360.) 



b*. "Wing less than 9.00; plumage mainly grayish or blue; bill cylindrical, 



scarcely or not at all higher than broad. 



c 1 . Nostrils concealed by an antrorse tuft of feathers ; color ash-gray, with 



black on wings and tail, the latter mainly white, and secondaries 



broadly tipped with white Picicorvus. (Page 364.) 



c 2 . Nostrils wholly exposed ; color uniform dull blue, brighter on head. 



Cyanocephalus. (Page 364.) 



Genus PICA Cuvier. (Page 350, pi. XCVIIL, fig. 2.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — Wings metallic greenish blue, varied with greenish or 

 violet (sometimes both), the inner webs of quills chiefly white; tail rich metallic 

 green varied with bronze, purple, and violet near end ; scapulars, belly, sides, and 

 flanks pure white ; other parts blackish. Adult ; Head, neck, breast, back, tail- 

 coverts, and thighs deep black, the top of the head more or less distinctly glossed 

 with metallic greenish or bronzy. Young : Head, neck, etc., dull black, without 

 metallic gloss on crown. Nest of coarse, often thorny, sticks, lined with finer 

 twigs and rootlets, and protected by a loose canopy of coarse, often thorny, twigs, 

 the entrance through the latter on one side. Eggs 3-10, pale olive-buffy, dull 

 white, or very pale greenish, thickly speckled, clouded, sprinkled, or dashed with 

 brown. 



a 1 . Bill deep black, and naked skin of orbital region blackish. 



b 1 . Feathers of throat without white beneath surface ; wing 6.90-7.55 (7.24), 

 tail 8.40-10.30 (9.36), exposed culmen 1.10-1.25 (1.21), tarsus 1.57-1.80 



(1.68). Hab. Northern and central Europe. 



P. pica (Linn.). Magpie. 1 



1 Corvuspica Linn., S. N. ed. 10, i. 1758, 106. Pica pica Shakpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mua. iii. 1877, 62. 



