THE OOLOOIST. 



71 



eggs a look of disgust came over his 

 face that is hard to describe in words. 

 With a zeal worthy of a good cause he 

 sat to work demolishing the structure 

 which he evidently assumed would take 

 only a short time. The longer he lab- 

 ored the more tempting those eggs be- 

 came and at the same time more futile 

 his labors were for he was tearing up 

 the compact structure of the nest and 

 making it more and more difficult to 

 get a paw in. In fact he had by this 

 time closed the nest up so securely that 

 the old bird herself would be unable to 

 enter. At last disgusted and full of 

 thorns he clambered down and made off 

 without any omelet of Magpie eggs to 

 satisfy him for all the work he had 

 done. I followed him up to the bush 

 and got my hands nicely torn up trying 

 to open the nest so that I might add to 

 my collection. Many times have I re- 

 turned from the collecting trips my 

 hands one mass of scratches. The game 

 was worth it all however. I have of- 

 ten wondered how the old bird could get 

 her body through the very small open- 

 ing that she leaves in one side of the 

 nest. She does though, for I have noted 

 them simply dive into the nest without 

 a pause and never break an egg. I said, 

 at first, they built their homes in the 

 hawthorn bushes in the river valleys. 

 Now, however, since the advent of set- 

 tlement and acquired enemies have tak- 

 en the place of the natural enemies of 

 the bird, they have begun building in 

 the higher pines upon the hillsides. In 

 fact the last collecting that I did in 

 the Clearwater Valley of some one 

 hundred sets that I collected hardly ten 

 of them were taken from the typical 

 nesting localities. Instead we were 

 compelled to don the "hooks" and 

 skin to the summits of the towering 

 pines for our treasures. I consider 

 this a very remarkable reversion with- 

 in so short a time. 



I can see no objection to collecting all 

 the eggs of this bird that can be found. 

 To the casual bird student the Mag- 



pie is a very cute fellow with a fund of 

 humor to his credit and a store of good 

 shrewd common sense under his black 

 bonnet, to the resident of his bailiwick 

 he is a most arrant thief and des- 

 troyer of other nests and is not above 

 purloining a young chicken whenever 

 the opportunity presents. Those are 

 minor sins compared with his habit of 

 picking at live animals. I lived among 

 the Indians for several years, and 

 learned that the Indian is never very 

 careful of his horses, riding them until 

 they have sore backs, then turning 

 them out to get well the best way they 

 may. Many and many times have I 

 seen two or three Magpies seated upon 

 the back of one of these poor beasts 

 industriously making a meal. It seem- 

 ed impossible for the tortured animal to 

 shake them off. They would flap up 

 into the air a foot and realight as soon 

 as possible and resume their tearing at 

 his flesh. The sheep men of the west 

 hate a Magpie above all other pests. 

 They harass the weak sheep in the 

 spring to such an extent that they of- 

 ten kill them. It is a rule on the range 

 to shoot the old birds and destroy their 

 home whenever one is found. This is 

 not a pleasant topic in bird life but I 

 suppose that we are not reading for the 

 breakfast table but for information. 

 The eggs are quite familiar to ool- 

 ogists hence it is not necessary to des- 

 cribe them. They usually lay large 

 clutches, seven being the average 

 though I have taken many sets of twelve 

 and one of fourteen. These last are 

 under the suspicion of being lain by 

 more than one bird however. The 

 parents are very industrious as indeed 

 they must be to keep so many mouths 

 filled. It is really astonishing the 

 amount of food they will collect and 

 carry to the nest in the course of a day. 

 All is fish that comes to their nets. 

 Everything digestible is commandered 

 and carried to the waiting mouths. 

 When the young are nearly grown and 

 have left the nest they form a very 



