BIKDS OF MINNESOTA. 261 



When hunted, their sub rosa vigilance in eluding the eye of 

 the persecutor is simply marvelous, in many respects like, 

 but outdoing the Cuckoo. In flocks, except after having been 

 repeatedly disturbed by being shot at they are quite the 

 opposite, and even become quite familiar after a time. 



I once spent some eighteen months where the Magpies were 

 very numerous and bred abundantly on low branching oak 

 trees that were scattered amongst the hills. The nests, for 

 the size of the bird were extremely bulky, consisting of 

 sticks, twigs and mud, in the order named. "On this again is a 

 lining of fine twigs, hair, feathers and any proper material 

 which they can find. Over the whole, rising from the walls of 

 the nest, is a dome of twigs and sticks very ingeniously and 

 securely woven together and framing a shelter for the bird 

 while setting. There are two openings, opposite each other, 

 evidently to make room for the long tail of the bird, which 

 could never be brought within the nest. The eggs are five, of 

 a pale greenish, very thickly obscured with spots and dashes 

 of pale purplish brown, varying somewhat in intensity and 

 being somewhat thicker at the larger end." I have quoted the 

 description from Birds of the Northwest, pp. 213-14, for the 

 reason that it is so completely in accordance with my own 

 observations in the foot-hills along the Cossumnes river in 

 Sacramento county, California, where my sister so long resided. 



Note. — When the foregoing was written, I followed Coues* 

 opinion that the Yellow- billed Magpies of that coast were but a 

 variety of the present species, but not without mental protest 

 (often expressed amongst local friends) which the American 

 Ornithologist's Union have confirmed in the Check List. I 

 have never seen the nest of the Black-billed Magpie, and had 

 supposed that the identity of the structures had been an im- 

 portant factor in determining the specific unity of the two 

 varieties. P. li. H. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Tail vei-y long more than half the total length, the feathers 

 much graduated, the lateral scarcely more than half the mid 

 die. First primary falcate, curved, and attenuated; bill about 

 as high as bro:id at the base; the culmen and gonys much 

 curved, and about equal; the bristly feathers reaching nearly to 

 the middle of the bill; nostrils nearly circular; tarsi very long, 

 middle toe scarcely more than two thirds its length. A patch 

 of naked skin beneath and behind the eye and the bill black. 

 General color black; the belly, scapulars, and inner webs of 

 the primaries, white; hind part of back grayish; exposed por- 

 tion of the tail feathers glossy-green, tinged with purple and 



