608 COEVID^. 



each carefully marked, and which show no sign of immaturity, the female has the 

 frontal and crest-feathers tipped with white and those of the male with hlue. As in the 

 other species of Calocitta there certainly seems to be a sexual difference in the markings 

 of the head, we are inclined to think that the sexes can be distinguished by their 

 markings in this species ; on the other hand is Grayson's positive statement that they 

 are alike, so that further observations are desirable to clear up this point. 



Grayson says that after the month of September the Urracas {C. colliei), in families 

 of seven or eight, will almost invariably be found with the small flocks of Double- 

 crested Orioles (Cassiculus melanicterus), with whom they continue all the winter till 

 the breeding-season arrives. They follow the Orioles through all their peregrinations 

 in the woods, in order to share a part of the various beetles, grasshoppers, and other 

 insects and their larvae, which the more active Orioles are better fitted to uncover 

 from their hiding-places in the bark and leaves of trees. They thus pass the time 

 hunting amicably together, the Orioles seeming to be satisfied with their society, and 

 at the same time the ever vigilant Urracas, being on the alert, give timely warning of 

 danger. 



The Urraca Jay builds its nest in May ; it is composed of rough thorny sticks, and 

 lined with moss or fibres of roots and grass ; it is about as large as that of the Magpie, 

 and, like that bird, a great deal of caution is observed in locating it in some inaccessible 

 thorny tree. 



It is an inhabitant of Western Mexico, generally met with in the thick and virgin 

 forests of the tierra caliente, near the Pacific coast. 



2. Calocitta formosa. 



Pica formosa, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 437 \ 



Calocitta formosa, Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 22 ' ; Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, p. 381 =■ ; Salv. Ibis, 1870, 



p. 114'; P. Z. S. 1883, p. 423'; Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 285=; Bull. U. S. 



Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 24''; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 88' ; Nutt. & Ridgw. Pr. U. S. 



Nat. Mus. vi. p. 392°; Perez, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1886, p. 153". 

 Pica bullocki, Wagl. Syst. Av. fol. 21, p. 6 ". 



Cyanurus bullocki, Bp. P. Z. S. 1837, p. 115 '' ; Consp. Av. i. p. 380". 

 Calocitta bullocki, Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, p. 358 '*. 

 Garrula gubernatrix, Temm. PI. Col. p. 436 (Jan. 1828) ". 

 Cyanurus gubernatrix, Taylor, Ibis, 1860, p. 113 '°. 



Cseruleo-grisea ; pileo postioo et nucha azureis ; alis extus azureo-hmbatis ; loris, capitds lateribus et gutture albis 

 undique nigro marginatis ; crista elongata nigra, plumarum longissimarum dimidio basah griseo ; corpore 

 subtus albo ; cauda supra cyanea subtus nigra, rectricibus utrinque quatuor albo late terminatis ; rostro 

 et pedibus nigris. Long, tota 24-0, alse 7-4, caudse rectr. med. 13-0, rectr. lat. 5-0, rostri a ricfcu 1-6, 

 tarsi 1'7. (Descr. maris ex Oaxaca, Mexico. Mus. Brit.) 



5 mari similis, sed cristse plumis elongatis omnino nigris, nucha- nigra, pileo postico tantum eseruleo lavato. 



Eah. Mexico " i^, Temiscaltepec {Bullock i), Manzanilla Bay, Rio de Ameria {Xantus % 



