1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 27 



Most of the Magpies have more or less greyish over the rump, and the 

 absence of this is one distinguishing character of F. bottanensis. 



6. P. Nuttalli, Audubon, ' Ornithological Biography.' This species 

 is at once known by its yellow bill. From Western North America. 



7. p. ? The small species noticed in /. A. S. XIII, 393, 



which is considerably inferior in size to the European Magpie, and has 

 the tail glossed as in P. Nuttalli. I certainly do not think that it could 

 have been P. hudsonia, and am unaware of its habitat. The only spe- 

 cimen I have seen was an unmounted skin in the collection of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society. 



Psilorhinus, Ruppell. The Blue Magpies. Mr. G. R. Gray, in his 

 recent enumeration of the species of this group, gives only four ; three 

 of these being American, and the fourth Asiatic. I find, however, that 

 several nearly allied Asiatic species, as many as five apparently, require 

 to be discriminated. 



1. Ps. sinensis; Cuculus sinensis, Lin., founded on the San-hia of &<il/* 

 Bttffen>: Corvus erythrorhynchos, Latham, founded on le Geai de la Chine 



d, bee rouge of Buffon ; also Coracias melanocephala, Latham. This 

 Chinese bird, according to Levaillant's figure and description, has 

 too much white upon its crown for the common Himalayan species, 

 figured as Pica erythrorhyncha in Gould's ' Century* ; and as the 

 other oriental species of this group differ especially in this particular, and 

 as Levaillant examined " at least six specimens" of his Pie Bleue, I think 

 we may confide in his accuracy as regards the marking in question. He 

 expressly states that the forehead, cheeks, throat, and the front and sides 

 of the neck, are of a decided black ; the whole top of the head is covered 

 with bluish-grey feathers, which are long and broad, and form a kind 

 of pendent crest : but he is doubtless wrong in correcting Buffon res- 

 pecting the colouring of the beak, the original bright coral-red of which 

 had faded in the specimens which he saw and drew from. 



2. Ps. occipitalis, nobis : Pica erythrorhyncha, apud Vigors and Gould. 

 Bill coral-red ; a large oval white patch confined to the occiput, and 

 pointed posteriorly, with terminal white spots on the hinder coronal 

 feathers immediately impending it. The common species of Nepal and 

 to the NW., as at Mussoorie, &c. 



3. Ps. magnirostris, nobis. Resembles the last, but is still more richly 

 coloured, especially on the wings ; the bill much larger than in the 



