that, though then very common, it was unknown fifty years
before, while Rutty in 1772 observes :—“ It is a foreigner,
naturalized here since the latter end of K. James the lid ’s
reign, and is said to have been driven hither by a strong
wind.” There is however a widely-spread belief in Ireland
that the Pie was imported into the country by the English out
of spite. At what precise date and under what circumstances
it first made its appearance we must remain in doubt, hut
the bird is now unquestionably abundant enough in many
parts, and Capt. Clark-Kennedy informs the Editor that he
has counted more than seventy in a single field in Donegal.
To return to the geographical range of this bird, a matter
on which opinions are divided. It is very generally distributed
throughout the continent of Europe, for, though examples
from the south of Spain present some slight variation,*
hardly an ornithologist is now so bold as to say that we have
two species in this quarter of the globe. From information
obtained by Wolley in Lapland, it appears within the last
century to have been gradually pushing its way along the
coast and into the interior from one fishing-station or settler’s
house to the next, and it has now reached the vicinity of the
North Cape on the one side and far up most of the river basons
on the other. In the north-east of Russia it is not known
to extend beyond Cholmogory in the Government of Archangel.
It is found in the larger islands of the Mediterranean
from Sicily to Cyprus, as well as in Asia Minor, but
is nowadays wanting in Syria and Palestine, though given
by Russell as occurring about Aleppo in the last century.
Ruppell included it as being pretty plentiful in winter in
Lower Egypt, where later observers have failed to find it.
Further to the eastward the difficulty begins. Under various
names Pies from different parts of Asia have been described
as forming at least five distinct species f ; but both Mr.
Rave no name for it in the ancient Irish language, favours the opinion held by
our best informed naturalists, that this bird is of recent introduction into this
country.” The Welsh name seems to be Piogen and the Gaelic Pioghaid.
* They have the rump pure black and a bare spot behind the eye, in these
characters resembling the Pie of North-west Africa, Pica mauritanica ; but that
has the postocular patch of a fine blue and the wings much shorter.
t These are P . leacoptera from Turkestan and Tibet, P. bactriana from
Dresser and Mr. Sharpe, two of the most recent investigators
of the subject—the one in his well-known ‘ Birds of
Europe’, and the other in his | Catalogue of the Birds
in the British Museum ’ (iii. pp. 62-66)—agree in refusing
them that rank, though more or less doubtfully allowing the
Pica leucoptera of Central Asia to be a local race or subspecies,
while on the other hand Dr. Finsch considers it a
very good species *. With the possible exception then of the
undefined territory occupied by this form, we may conclude
that the greater part of the rest of Asia belonging to the
Palsearctic Region, to about lat. 60° N. t—that is, from Persia
to Kamchatka and Japan—is occupied by our own species,
which also occurs throughout China, with its islands
Hainan i and Formosa. Crossing Behring’s Strait a Pie is
found inhabiting the western part of North America from
Alaska, and some of its outlying islands as Ounga and
Kodiak, as far south as Arizona, and stretching eastward
to the upper waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone. This
bird has been by many ornithologists regarded as a distinct
species under the name of Pica hudsonia, and much ingenuity
has been exercised to establish that view; but none
of the differences assigned (c/. Pr. Max, Journ. fur Orn.
1856, p. 204) seem to be constant, and even Messrs. Dresser
and Sharpe are at one in considering it specifically identical
with our own bird, the longitudinal range of which in the
northern hemisphere is therefore very extensive. §
Afghanistan, P. bottanensis from Bhotan, P. media from China and P. japonica
from Japan (cf. G. R. Gray, Hand-List, ii. p. 10). There is also Mr. Hodgson’s
P. tibetana (Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 2, iii. p. 203) which, according, to Blyth
(Ibis, 1867, p. 36), should have no white on the. scapulars, but herein there
seems to be some mistake.
* It is described by Mr. Sharpe {op. cit.) as being similar to P. rustica, “ but
having the white on the quills extended sometimes to the very tip of the inner
web, never reaching less than to 0 ’3 inch of the tip ; on the throat the base of
the feathers white ; tail in adult bird coppery green. ^
+ Mr. Seebohm was informed of its occasional occurrence on the Jennesei so far
as 69|°. As in Lapland it will probably extend its range as settlements increase.
j In Hainan, says Swinhoe, its introduction was effected about a.d. 1450
a singular parallel to its appearance in Ireland some two hundred years later.
§ In California however there is what is often deemed a second species,
P. nuttalli, easily recognized by its yellow bill and the bare, yellow skin round