MAGPIE. 
( Corvus pica, Lin. Wilson, iv. p. 75. pi. 35. fig. 2. Philad. Muse- 
um, No. 1333.) 
Sp. Charact. — Of a deep velvety black; the belly, primaries on 
the inner web, and scapulars white ; the tail about 10 inches 
long, greenish black with bronzed reflections. 
This bird is much more common in Europe than in 
America, being confined in this country to the northern 
regions, and to the extensive plains of the Rocky Moun- 
tains west of the Mississippi. Thence they continue 
to the banks of the Columbia, and on the opposite side of 
northern and temperate Asia, are found in Kamschatka, 
Japan, and China. They are sometimes met with as far 
down the Missouri as Boonsborough in the severity of 
winter, driven from the western wilderness, only by the 
imperious calls of hunger. In summer they are so rare, 
even in the Missouri territory, that from March to Octo- 
ber, and from St. Louis to the trading-house at the Man- 
dans, a distance by the river of 1600 miles, a party of 
