70 



THE OOLOGIST. 



A Collecting Trip. 



May 2nd, 1880, I went on a collect- 

 ing trij) down the banks of the Sonth 

 Platte river in Arapahoe County, Colo- 

 rado. Scattered along the banks are 

 aspens and cottonwoods, the only tim- 

 ber in that locality. The season being 

 quite early I directed my attention to 

 the only birds then breeding : The 

 Yellow Billed Magpie {P. Nuttalli) 

 and the Fish Crow {C Caurinus). 

 I examined several newly made CroAvs' 

 nests, but succeeded in getting only 

 one sijecimen, the rest of the nests 

 being in various stages of preparation. 

 The nests were invariably placed in 

 forks of the cottonwoods, at a hight 

 of from 30 to 60 feet from the ground, 

 and were composed of small branches 

 and twigs, and lined with a few leaves, 

 bits of grass, &c., and were sortiewhat 

 smaller than the nest of the Common 

 Crow ((7. Americana.) 



I was more fortunate with the Mag- 

 pies and took three sets of four, four 

 sets of five, all fresh, and two sets of 

 six, each slightly incubated. The nest 

 of the Magpie is a curiojis and bulky 

 structure for a bird of that size. It is 

 a mass of dead limbs, some of them 

 half an inch in diameter, down to the 

 smallest twigs ; one that I measured 

 was thirty inches high and twenty inch- 

 es across, the cavity containing the 

 eggs was three inches deep,' six inches 

 across, and eight inches from the bot- 

 tom to the top.. It was lined with 

 strips of inner bark, leaves, and grass. 

 A small hole on one side was the birds' ' 

 only entrance. The greater part of 

 the mass of sticks was arranged over 

 the eggs in such a manner as to shield 

 them from the severest storm. The 

 parent birds were very shy, leaving the 

 nest as soon as it was approached, and 

 not showing themselves again within 

 gun shot. The nests as a general 

 thing were low, and in small trees, one 

 in particular was so low that I could 



stand on the ground and reach the 

 eggs vrithout difficulty ; as I did not 

 not take the measurement of the eggs' 

 a{ the time, and do not have them with 

 me, I cannot describe them as fully as 

 I would A^dsh to do. While in Sum 

 mit, Gilpin, Clear Creek, and Jefferson 

 Counties, I noticed a great many Water 

 Ouzel {H. Mexicanus), but in all my 

 wanderings through Chaflee, Gunnison, 

 and Lake Counties, I did not see a 

 single specimen, In a space of ten 

 miles in Clear Creek canon. Clear 

 Creek County, I noticed six different 

 nests of the Golden Ragle, but unfor- 

 tunately they were inaccessible to me. 

 Here in Leadville the Artie Blue 

 Bird {8. Artica) stays with us until 

 June 1st., and then disapi^ears until 

 the following spring. Our only Sum- 

 mer residents are the Robin and Ore- 

 gon Snow Bird, both of which breed 

 here. D. D. Stone. 



[Mr. Stone informs us that he shall 

 go down to New Mexico about De- 

 cember 1st., and if possible will fur- 

 nish us with notes from that region.] 



A Stray Partridge. 



A friend relates the following story 

 of a Partridge which she found among 

 the poultry in her yard : — " Hearing a 

 good deal of cackling among the fowls 

 I went to the door to discover the 

 cause and found the fowls clustered to- 

 gether and much excited, my little boy 

 was chasing something backwards and 

 forwards in their midst, while the ob- 

 ject, a strange large bird with droop- 

 ing wings and spread tail, was chasing 

 the fowls in a manner very difficult to 

 describe. The sight was so unusual 

 that I was frightened and caught the 

 child in my arms to remove him from 

 danger. A neighbor was driving by 

 at the time and seeing my position 

 came into the yard, when he remarked 

 that it was a Partridge. I asked him 

 to catch it for me, assuring him it could 



