TaB. XLIII.
PICA SINENSIS.

Tus species of Pie, which has already been made known by the researches of Major-General Hardwicke,
unlike the rest of its congeners whose local distribution is not greatly extended, inhabits tracts of land widely
differing from each other both in character and situation,—the higher portions of the Himalaya, the plains
and low countries around those mountains, and the kingdom of China from whence it derives its specific
name, being alike its places of residence. Like the Pica vagabunda (to which it is closely allied,) and a third
species lately received from Madras, it possesses characters differing considerably from those of the typical
Pice, and which appear to warrant its separation, in conjunction with the two allied species, from the genus to

which they have hitherto been referred among the Corvide.
Like the rest of the family, the sexual differences in plumage throughout this group are trifling or none ;

the females, however, are less than the males.
The forehead is black ; the occiput and back of the neck grey; the back light brown ; the wings black, as
are also the tail-feathers, except the two middle which are grey ; the cheeks and the throat are blackish, fading

‘nto a smoke colour on the breast; the under parts dull grey; the under tail-coverts light rufous ; the beak

and tarsi black.
Length, 15 inches: beak, 1+; tarsi, 11; tail, including the two middle feathers, 10.

The bird is figured of the natural size.