CORVINE. GARRULUS. 
109 
Ij abdomen, black ; of the rest of the breast, and the outer sca- 
pulars white ; tail very long, graduated, splendent with green 
I and purple, as are the wings, the greater part of the inner 
web of the outer quills of which is white. Young similar 
! to the old birds, but with the plumage less dense and glossy. 
Male, 18, 24, 7:§? IfV? Female, 17? 24, 
This beautiful bird occurs in ail the cultivated and wooded 
parts of Britain and Ireland. Its food consists of larvse, 
worms, insects, moliusca, reptiles, eggs, young birds, small 
I quadrupeds, carrion, sometimes grain and fruits of various 
! kinds. Extremely shy and vigilant when molested, it is 
I much less so in unfrequented places. It walks like the 
I crows, but occasionally leaps in a sidelong direction, emits a 
! chattering cry when alarmed, flies rather heavily, and nestles 
I in trees or bushes, forming a large nest of twigs, covered over 
or arched, with an aperture on one side. The eggs, from 
three to six, an inch and five-twelfths long, eleven- twelfths 
and a half in breadth, pale green, freckled with umber-brown 
and light purplish-grey, but varying in their tints. Being very 
destructive to eggs and young birds, it is much persecuted. 
It is easily tamed, but is troublesome from its superabundant 
activity, and its propensity to carry off whatever object strikes 
its fancy. 
Common Magpie. Pyet. Pianet. Mag. Madge. 
Corvus Pica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 157.— Corvus Pica, and 
Garrulus Pica, Temm. Man. d’Ornith, i. 113, iii. 63. — Pica 
melanoleuca, Common Magpie, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 
562. 
GENUS XXX. GARRULUS. JAY. 
Bill shorter than the head, straight, strong, compressed 
toward the end, rather pointed ; upper mandible with the 
dorsal line declinate and slightly arched, the ridge narrow, 
the sides sloping, the edges direct, sharp, with a notch or 
sinus close to the tip, which is rather acute and declinate ; 
lower mandible with the angle of moderate width, the dorsal 
line ascending and convex, the edges slightly inflected, the 
tip rather acute ; gape-line nearly straight. Mouth of mo- 
derate width ; upper mandible concave with five or seven 
prominent lines ; tongue oblong, sagittate, flat above, horny 
and thin at the edges, the tip cleft and lacerated ; oesopha- 
gus rather wide, nearly uniform ; proventriculus bulbiform ; 
