Jan., I9o 7 i?IAGPIES ON THE LA PLATA 9 YOUNG MAGPIE, JUST OUT OF NEST AllOUT FIVE ?,VEEKS OLD As in the case of other members of the crow and jay family, there is a differ- ence of opinion as to the value of magpies to man. No doubt they eat many in- sects, carrion, and very likely a few mice; but they eat eggs and yonrig of other smaller birds, steal more or less grain, and I have heard them accnsed of picking at sores on the backs of horscs, bnrros and cattle, and doing considerable harm in that manner. Colorado Springs, Colorado. MAGPIES ON THE LA PLATA BY M. FRENCH GILMAN HE La Plata River is a small stream in southwestern Colorado, much like our southern California rivers. It flows into the ,Can Jnan, a tribntary of the mighty Colorado. The growth in the river bottom and on the adjacent banks seems to form a magpie's paradise, judging from the numbers of these birds and their old nests. Beginning where the stream issnes from the La Plata Moun- tains, near the mining town of Hesperus, on down the river for abont ten miles, the birds fairly swarm. They are found in smaller numbers along the stream to its jnnction with the San Jnan and then down that river as far as I have been: Shiprock, New Mexico. The center of the popnlation--Pica pica hudsonica population--seems to be near the Fort Lewis Indian School, in La Plata County. Here the river bottom widens and is covered with a dense growth of narrow-leaf cottonwood (PolSuins an.ffnstifolia), black birch (13etnla occidentalis), paper-leaf alder (Alnus tenuifolia), two kinds of willow, a few aspens (1%pulus tremuloides), some scattering pines (iPinusflexilis), and the usual undergrowth of such altitudes, 7,5o0 to 8, xeo feet. On one side of the river is a mesa covered with scrub oak (Quercus undulata
