Common Magpie (Pica pica) - HBW 14, p. 604

Taxonomy: Corvus pica Linnaeus,1758. Uppsala, Sweden.
Forms a superspecies with P. asirensis, P. nuttalli and P. hudsonia, and often treated as conspecific with first and/or last of those. Several races possibly warrant elevation to species rank, pending further research into comparative vocalizations and social behaviour as well as DNA molecular studies: N African mauritanica may have reached species level, but Spanish melanotos approaches it in several respects and may be more closely allied to it than to nominate race; distinctive camtschatica of NE Siberia is also isolated, while bottanensis of Tibetan region differs strongly from neighbouring forms, but is said to intergrade with anderssoni in N of its range; SE Asian serica exhibits interesting similarity to European races, although it seems that such superficial similarity may not be supported by findings of DNA studies. Many intergrading populations exist. A number of other races have been described, but situation complicated by intermediates (e.g. anderssoni is possibly an intermediate series of populations): galliae (from France) and germanica (Germany) are included in nominate race; kot (E Ukraine), laubmanni (Kelat, in Pakistan) and hemileucoptera (C Siberia) in bactriana; japonica (Japan), amurensis (near Khabarovsk, in Ussuriland) and jankowskii (near Vladivostok) in anderssoni; and hainana (Hainan I) and alashanica (Ala Shan, in C China) in serica. Race serica often misspelt "sericea". Ten subspecies currently recognized.