142 



THE 00L0QI8T 



THE RETURN OF THE MAGPIE. 



Several old-timers have informed me 

 that the Magpie was formerly common 

 in the Edmonton District, where they 

 made themselves objectionable by at- 

 tacking cayuses with sore backs, in 

 the days when pack trains were no 

 novelty in Edmonton; but from the 

 time of my arrival in Alberta, in '98, 

 until the fall of 1919, I never saw a 

 single specimen in this part of the 

 province. 



On September 15th, 1919, 1 observed 

 one lone straggler flying near the 

 Pembina River, at Belvedere. In 1920 

 one made its appearance on Septem- 

 ber 1st, alighting on the back of one of 

 my horses in the pasture, and on the 

 9th I observed four of them together. 

 In a short time they became generally 

 distributed over the district and re- 

 mained through the winter. In the 

 spring they all disappeared except one 

 pair, which built a nest on my place 

 at Lac La Nonne, and raised a brood 

 of five young. One of these I took for 

 a pet, but it did not live. 



I found the nest on April 5th. On 

 the 17th it appeared to be completed 

 and the bird was sitting on the 23rd. 

 The nest was in a thick clump of wil- 

 lows and was the usual roofed struct- 

 ure of sticks, described in the bird 

 books. I observed that it had two 

 entrances. On June 11th the young 

 had left the nest and were perched on 

 branches near it. During the nesting 

 period the birds were very quiet and 

 seldom seen. The family remained in 

 the vicinity all summer and I often 

 observed the six of them together. 

 They seemed to be the only Magpies 

 in the country, as on several motor 

 trips to Edmonton, 60 miles southeast, 

 and as far as 30 miles east, during the 

 summer none were seen. 



On August 25th I saw eight of them 

 together, so they must have been 

 joined by two more birds, and on Oc- 



tober 23rd I saw eleven at one time. 

 Since then I have seen Magpies nearly 

 every day and they seem to be gener- 

 ally distributed over the district. An 

 interesting question is, why did the 

 American Magpie abandon the country 

 for over 20 years and why are they 

 now re-occupying it? 



A. D. Henderson, 

 Belvedere, Alta., Can. 



A NEWSY LETTER. 



One of our collectors, who is now in 

 Lower California, writes under date 

 Oi February 25th: 



"Mail is always welcome in this out- 

 of-the-way place. The nearest rail- 

 road station is over 200 miles away. 

 Mail goes to Gueymas, Mexico, where 

 it stays until some boat takes it to 

 La Paz, and then it comes the rest 

 of the 145 miles on mule back. We 

 had a very nice trip down the coast, 

 and are now located in this place, in a 

 very comfortable adobe house, one of 

 the best in town. This town is about 

 a mile from the Gulf of Lower Cali- 

 fornia, and eight miles from Cape 

 Lucas. The town is placed in a little 

 valley about a mile wide and forty 

 miles long. The principal industry 

 is raising sugar cane, tomatoes and 

 cattle. 



About a mile from town is quite an 

 extensive slough, which is ideal for 

 shore birds and Heron. This morn- 

 ing I saw on the marsh Brewsters, 

 Egret, American Egret, Reddish Egret, 

 Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night 

 Heron and others. The Herons are 

 exceedingly shy, "May Maleto," as 

 the Mexicans say. We have been 

 treated nicely and have had no un- 

 pleasantness of any kind. 



Every day or so some one brings in 

 a bird, generally without a tail. 



One young man sent me a bird 

 taken forty-five miles from here, and 

 the sad part of it was, and also the 



