jan. , i9o 7 MAGPIES ON THE LA PLATA est, tho I found one against the trunk of a cottonwood only five feet from the ground, while the tree was at least fifty feet tall. Nests in willows, ('aks and birches were nearest tile ground. The high nests were those in trees located along a highway, or in a lone tree on the mesa orin aclearing. The low nests were nearly always ill trees or shrubs iu a thicket, or else in wet marshy ground, hard to get at. The nest only four feet high was in a willow that stood on a tiny marshy island in a pool of stagnant water. One, five feet high, was in a willow on very boggy ground, with stagnant pools on three sides of it. One exception was a nest six feet from the ground in a cottonwood tree alongside of a much used wood road. But as this nest had only four eggs, the parents were probably not ve[y particular whether their family matured or not. But it did, and made a safe get-away in spite of the low and exposed situation. The birds did not seem very shy while building, and were rather in evidence when the nest contained eggs. But when the eggs were hatched! The old birds would come and perch on a branch just over my head or at one side barely be- yond arm'slengthand tellme what they thought of me. And the way they swore at me was something fierce--if it was not swearing I'm no judge of profanity! Several times a bird only four feet from my head would savagely peck the branch on which he, or she, perhaps, sat, all the while muttering various kinds of threats. And ifI picked up a young one their wrath was beyond expression. They would call in all the neighbors within a radius of half a mile to help make "war medicine." The nests varied but little in material or manner of construction, all having' the well-defined arch of twigs over the nest and the entrance at one side. Some- times the arch was well connected with the nest proper, allowing insertion of the hand only at the entrance; while with other nests the hand could be thrust thru the "siding" quite easily. There seemed quite a difference in the size of nests and amount of material used. Some were large and well buil{, the walls being quite firm and the arch so dense that snch nests had remained intact for a long time. Others were small, and quite frail and flimsy, particularly the superstruct- ure-contract work, [ presume! I noticed that the earlier nests were the well built ones while the late ones were inferior. I do not mean to say that all the late ones were inferior, but all the inferior ones were late. I think the birds build anew each year, as I saw no repairing done and all nests occnpied were new ones. The great number of t?ld nests in a good state of preservation made much work iu examining; as often, untilI attained some degree of expertness, I would climb up a difficult tree and find the nest to be a last year's one. Twice I was rewarded, however, as the old nest was occupied by 1ong-earedowls. All the nests had thick plastered walls, well lined with rootlets and horsehair. It is a puzzle to me wilere tile birds find so many rootlets when the ground is covered with snow. The eggs were nearly uuiform in size, coloring and markings, aud seemed quite small for a bird of the magpie's dimensions. They greatly resemble the eggs of the Brewer blackbird, and also those of the California crow, in color and marking, and are between the two in size--nearer the blackbird, tho. Of- the great number of eggs examined I found but one infertile, and only one with the heavier markings at the small end, "bald-headed eggs" the boys call them. The magpies, with their striking black and white coloration, are a feature {?f the landscape, or, rather, "snowscape," as it might well be called, for about half the year. A southern Californian's involuntary thought on first sight of the
