Birds 81 



questionably finding the other a good deal of a pest. But the 

 sparrow has in some respects the best of it, for he profits by man's 

 building operations, whereas man only loses by the sparrow's. 

 For the technical characters of all these Passeres, the reader must 

 be referred to special works, and it will suffice here to enumerate 

 the families, and indicate the species likely to be found. 



Near the base of our series, with the outer or tenth primary 

 quite well developed, the sexes alike, and the bill not hooked, 

 must come the Corvidae, or crows, jays and magpies. Everyone 

 knows the Magpie (Pica pica hudsonica), a splendid-looking bird 

 with a long tail. On one occasion (at Florissant, by S. A. Rohwer) 

 a Yellow-billed Magpie was reported to have been seen, but it 

 was perhaps a bird which had been eating eggs, and surely not 

 the Californian yellow-billed species. At the same time, it is 

 likely that the yellow-billed P. nuttalli originated as a mutation 

 from the ordinary black-billed kind, and if so, such a mutation 

 might occur again. The word piebald comes from the particolored 

 appearance of the magpie. The University of Colorado has a 

 magpie obtained by Jonas Bros., at Littleton, in which the black 

 is replaced by coffee brown, and the head, wings and tail are 

 whitish. Another partial albino magpie was obtained at 

 Magnolia. The Western Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos hesperis), 

 locally common, is known from the ravens by the smaller size 

 (wing hardly 12 inches) and the feathers of the neck not pale at 

 the base. If the neck feathers are pure white at the base, the 

 bird is the White-necked Raven (Corvus cryptoleucus of Couch). 

 It was formerly abundant, but has now almost disappeared. It 

 is essentially a southern bird, described originally from Mexico. 

 When the neck feathers are dull gray at the base, and the wing is 

 over 15 inches, the Western Raven (Corvus corax sinuatus) is 

 indicated. It is a subspecies of the Raven of Europe. The dark 

 blue Long-crested Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri diadcmata), first made 

 known from Zacatecas, Mexico, abounds among the yellow pines, 

 apparently talking scandal at a great rate. It is perhaps the most 

 characteristic of our Colorado birds. The Blue Jay of the Eastern 

 States (C. cristata) seems to be spreading westward over the plains, 

 and has been recorded a number of times from Colorado. Mr. 

 Warren states that it is common at Wray. Two somewhat 

 similar birds with mainly gray (not blue) plumage are the White- 



