88         MR.  J.  GOULD  ON  A  NEW  GENUS  IN  THE  FAMILY  OF  CORVID^E. 
disposition  ;  for,  unlike  the  common  Magpie,  which  remains  stationary,  seldom  travelling 
from  its  accustomed'haunts,  it  has  been  observed  to  be  perpetually  flitting  from  branch 
to  branch,  and  from  tree  to  tree,  instigated  no  doubt  by  the  desire  of  procuring  food, 
and  hence  travelling  through  a  circuit  of  considerable  extent.  These  wandering  habits 
we  may  reasonably  consider,  from  their  similarity  of  form,  to  belong  to  the  other 
species  also,  all  of  which  are  natives  of  eastern  Asia. 
The  nearest  affinity  of  this  Eastern  group  appears  to  be  that  which  it  bears  to  the 
genus  Crypsirhina^  of  M.  Vieillot,  with  which  it  accords  in  the  essential  character  of 
the  short  and  weakened  tarsi.  In  the  characters  of  the  bill,  however,  it  so  materially 
differs,  as  to  render  the  line  of  demarkation  between  the  two  groups  clear  and 
natural,  and  thus  to  authorize  the  separation  of  them.  This  member  in  Dendrocitta  is 
stronger  and  less  regularly  arched  than  in  Crypsirhina,  and  it  is  entirely  devoid  of  those 
velvet-like  appendages  that  cover  the  nostrils  in  the  latter  genus.  In  this  respect  it 
accords  more  closely  with  Pica,  as  well  as  in  the  outline  of  the  bill  towards  the  extre- 
mity ;  still  near  the  base  of  this  member  a  gradual  approach  to  the  form  as  it  exists  in 
Crypsirhina  shows  itself  by  a  lateral  swelling  and  by  a  considerable  development  in 
breadth.  Dendrocitta  thus  stands  intermediate  between  Pica  and  Crypsirhina,  and  rests 
its  claim  to  the  rank  of  a  separate  genus  on  the  prominence  of  the  station  it  holds  in 
nature,  marking  at  once  the  distinction  as  well  as  the  union  between  these  two  im- 
portant groups. 
The  species  of  the  genus  Pica  afford  many  subordinate  modifications  of  characters 
among  themselves,  which  are  for  the  most  part  accordant  with  their  geographical  distri- 
bution. Those  which  approach  most  nearly  to  Dendrocitta,  chiefly  by  the  corresponding 
characters  of  the  bill,  appear  to  be  the  Eastern  species  ;  for  instance.  Pica  erythrorhyncha, 
S)C.  These,  again,  seem  to  have  a  near  alliance  to  the  American  group  whose  chief  habitat 
may  be  considered  to  centre  in  Mexico,  of  which  Pica  gubernatrix  {Garrule  commandeur, 
Temm.,  PI.  Col.  436.)  and  Pica  Colliei,  Vig.  (Zool.  Journ.  vol.  iv.  pi.  12.)  may  be 
given  as  examples.  The  European  Pie,  the  type  of  the  group,  appears  to  succeed  to 
these:  and  from  thence  a  South  American  tribe,  exemphfied  in  the  Pie  Ging  of 
M.  Temminck  (PI.  Col.  169.),  and  Pie  Acahe  of  the  same  author  (PI.  Col.  58.),  par- 
taking in  a  great  degree  of  the  characters  of  both  Pies  and  Jays,  leads  from  the  present 
group  to  the  conterminous  one  of  Garrulus. 
'  This  is  the  Phrenothrix  of  Dr.  Horsfield,  well-illustrated  and  compared  with  Pica  in  his  '  Zoological  Re- 
searches.' 
