MAGPIE (Pica pica hudsonia) 
Length, from about 18 to 21 inches. The 
black head and body and the white belly, white 
wing patches, and long tail are distinguishing 
features. The yellow-billed magpie is smaller, 
with a yellow bill. 
Range: A characteristic western § species. 
Breeds from Aleutian Islands and Alaska, cen- 
tral Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and Win- 
nipeg Lake south to northern Arizona and New 
Mexico, and from the Cascades and Sierra to 
western North Dakota and western Texas; 
resident. 
There are two species of magpies, the yellow- 
billed being confined to California, where it is 
very local. In general the habits of the two 
are similar. “Maggie,” as this bird is famil- 
iarly known in the West, possesses dual traits. 
He is beautiful of plumage and adds much to 
the interest of the landscape as he flies from 
field to field, his long tail extending behind like 
a rudder. 
Of eminently sociable disposition, this bird 
is rarely seen alone. He prefers flocks of fam- 
ily size to 50 and upwards. In more ways than 
one the magpie is like the crow and his sagacity 
has developed along much the same lines. In 
most localities he is suspicious and wary, as he 
has good cause to be, for he is not a favorite 
with either farmer or ranchman. He is emi- 
nently carnivorous, a carrion feeder by prefer- 
ence, an insect eater by necessity, and he per- 
forms good service in the latter role. He eats 
also many wild fruits and berries, but he is an 
incorrigible thief and well he knows his way 
to the poultry yard. 
PHBE (Sayornis phcebe) 
Length, about 7 inches. Distinguishing marks 
are the dusky brown color, dark brown cap, 
and white margined outer tail feathers. 
Range: Lives mainly in the east. Breeds 
from about middle Canada south to northeast- 
ern New Mexico, central Texas, northern Mis- 
sissippi, and mountains of Georgia; winters 
from latitude 37 degrees to southern Mexico. 
Few of our birds have won a more secure 
place in our hearts than plain little phoebe, who 
has no pretentions to beauty of plumage or 
excellence of song. For this its confiding dis- 
position and trusting ways are responsible, and 
many a farmer listens for its familiar voice in 
early spring and welcomes it back to its accus- 
tomed haunts under the old barn. Originally 
building its nest on the face of cliffs, the phaebe 
soon forsook the wilds for man’s neighbor- 
hood, and year after year apparently the same 
pair returns to the identical rafter in the barn, 
the shelter of the porch, or the same nook 
under the foot bridge, which they have claimed 
for their own for many seasons. ‘The insistent 
call of “phcebe, phaebe” is as familiar as the 
pipe of the robin. 
The pheebe is one of the most useful of birds, 
living almost wholly on insects, among which 
are many noxious kinds, as May beetles. Many 
phcebes remain with us till late fall, and indi- 
viduals may be seen lingering in sheltered 
places in the woods long after other flycatchers 
have started for the tropics. 
20 
BLUE-FRONTED JAY (Cyanocitta stel!eri 
and subspecies) 
Length, 1134 to 13 inches. Easily distin- 
guished from its fellows by its high crest. 
brownish slaty foreparts, dark blue wings and 
tail, and blue or whitish streaks on forehead. 
Range: Resident in western North America 
from southern Alaska and Montana to Mexico. 
The blue-fronted jays, of which the Steller 
jay may be taken as the type, are common in- 
habitants of the piny woods of both the Rocky 
Mountain and the Sierra Nevada States. They 
are among the handsomest of the family, the 
beauty of their plumage, their long erectile 
crests, and their insistent voices compelling the 
attention of any who invade their retreats. 
Not being residents of cultivated districts, al- 
though they eat grain and small fruits, they do 
comparatively little damage. On the other 
hand, they do not do much good; for, although 
they are insect eaters, insects do not constitute 
a large part of their food, nor are the kinds 
they eat very important economically. Prob- 
ably their most serious fault is a fondness for 
the eggs and young of small insectivorous 
birds, of which they destroy many in the course 
of the year. They share this failing with all 
other members of the family, and bird lovers 
must deem it a pity that such bold, dashing, 
handsome birds as the jays should be so de- 
structive to small but useful birds. This habit 
is all the more to be deplored inasmuch as 
when unmolested jays readily respond to invi- 
tations to be neighborly, and willingly take up 
their abode near houses, where they never fail 
to excite admiration and interest. 
WOOD PEWEE (Myiochanes virens) 
Length, about 6% inches. Not readily dis- 
tinguished by color, though darker than most 
other small flycatchers, and with wing longer 
than tail. 
Range: Breeds from Manitoba and south- 
eastern Canada to southern Texas and central 
Florida; winters in Central and South Amer- 
ica. 
The wood pewee is clad in such modest garb 
and is of such retiring disposition that, were it 
not for its voice, it would often be passed un- 
noticed even by the most observant, especially 
as its home is in shaded glens or deep woods. 
Here the wood pewee pursues its vocation with 
a vigor worthy of all praise, and the snap of 
its mandibles as they close over some luckless 
flying insect is often the only sound heard in 
the depths of the quiet forest. There is little 
about the habits and make-up of this, or indeed 
of any of the flycatchers, to suggest great con- 
structive skill, but the nest of the wood pewee 
is a marvel of taste and ingenuity and, though 
much larger, suggests the dainty architecture 
of our hummingbirds. Like their fairy crea- 
tions, the wood pewees’ nest is covered with 
lichens and saddled neatly across a limb. 
The food of this flycatcher consists almost 
exclusively of insects and includes, among oth- 
ers, crane flies, beetles, dragonflies, ants, grass- 
hoppers, caterpillars, and moths of many kinds. 
It also devours such pests as the weevils and 
many flies, including the house fly. 
