One of the
>letters gently takes him to task for a column in which he implied that
>magpies were specific to North America. The writer mentioned that indeed the
>corvidae family has many relatives in europe. David responds with good nature
>saying that indeed he had been sloppy because he forgot to mention that he
>was talking about the magpie Pica pica, the Black-billed Magpie which the
>Audubon Master Birding Series assures him is restricted to western US.
>
>Well I don't have a copy of the Master Guide to birds but I doubt very much
>that it says that. I'm very surprised that David didn't check maybe a second
>source. Both my Peterson's say that Pica pica is also Eurasian in
>distribution. There is a fine volume (T & AD Poyser) that I want to purchase
>some day which discusses the Black-billed Magpie that lives in both North
>America and Europe. (As a side bar how many species aside from the Herring
>Gull, can claim dual citzenship, so to speak?)

Boy, finally found the journal I was looking for, Jim. Well not only is
he a good writer, but perhaps David Quammen can see into the future. A
recent paper (Zink, R.M., S. Rohwer, A.V.Andreev, and D.L. Dittmann. 1995.
Trans-beringia comparisons of mitochondrial DNA differentiation in birds)
compared the Mt. DNA of several species that have populations on either side
of the Bering Straits, one of these was the Magpie (Pica pica). Their
results suggest that the North American Black-billed Magpie should be split
from the Old World magpie. They also cite morphological differences as well
as disimilarities in vocalizations. However, the official status at this
point is that the Black-billed Magpie on either side of the strait is one
species. I should point out that this work was sponsored by the Burke Museum
- Seattle Scene Science.

To answer your question about dual citizenship, there are quite a few
birds that live in the old world and the new world, its particularly true in
the loons, grebes, ducks, shorebirds, gulls and terns. Its not as common in
passerines, but there are a few such as: Snow Bunting, Horned Lark, Bank
Swallow, Barn Swallow, American Pipit, Bohemian Waxwing, Northern Whetear,
Arctic Warbler, Siberian Tit, Northern Shrike, Magpie, both Redpolls, Pine
Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, and White-winged Crossbill. I probably missed some.

Alvaro Jaramillo "You are better off not knowing
Half Moon Bay, CA how sausages and laws are made"
alvaro at quake.net Otto von Bismarck,
but I saw it in a fortune cookie!

http://www.quake.net/~alvaro/index.html