26 Notices and Descriptions of various New [No. 169. 



to be the species of Afghanistan, though I have never had the opportu- 

 nity of comparing an Afghan with an European specimen. One I 

 examined some time ago, from that country, had the wing seven inches 

 and three-quarters long ; tail eleven inches ; bill to frontal feathers an inch 

 and a quarter ; and tarse an inch and three-quarters. Mr. Yarrell gives the 

 wing of the English bird as seven inches and a quarter, and Mr. Jenyns 

 as seven inches and eight lines : that of a British specimen in the 

 Society's Museum (probably a female,) has it but seven inches. I fully 

 believe that the Afghan Magpie is identical with the British species.* It 

 has also been generally considered identical with that of China and 

 Japan, and with the ordinary species of Western North America. 

 Mr. Gould, however, has recently described the Chinese Magpie as 

 distinct ; but it would seem that the European is one of three species 

 inhabiting the North American continent, all different from P. media 

 of South America. For the identity of the North American species 

 found westward of the Rocky Mountains, with that of Europe, we 

 have the authority of Mr. Swainson ; though he also regards the Chinese 

 Magpie as the same: remarking — " We have been able to compare En- 

 glish and Arctic [American] specimens, with one from the interior of 

 China, and we cannot perceive the slightest difference whatever to build 

 even the character of a variety, much less of a species. The tails of the 

 Arctic specimens are very beautiful." Fauna Americana-borealis, II, 

 292. Perhaps, therefore, there may be two species of Magpie in 

 China, one of them identical with that of Europe. 



4. P. sericea, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1845, p. 2. From Amoy. 

 " Closely allied to the common Magpie, but differs in the wings, being 

 blue instead of green, in the rather less extent of the white, and in hav- 

 ing a longer bill and much longer tarsus ; the latter measuring two 

 inches and a quarter. " 



5. P. hudsonia, (Sabine), 'Appendix' to the Narrative of Franklin's 

 first Polar Expedition, p. 671. The Magpie of Hudson's Bay. " Of 

 less size in all its parts than the European Magpie, except in its tail, 

 which exceeds that of its congener in length ; but the most remarkable 

 and obvious difference consists in a loose tuft of greyish and white feathers 

 on the back : * * * tail from eleven and a half to twelve inches long." 



* A Norwegian specimen just arrived, has the wing fully eight inches, and the rest 

 as in the Afghan specimen above noticed. 



