252 Taverner, Birds of Red Deer River, Alta. [April 



seen about Camp 1, but did not meet with them personally until between 

 Camp 5 and 6 when we found a family party of partially fledged birds 

 discussing the world and things in general in the Saskatoon bushes. " Chat- 

 tering like a Magpie " hardly gives a clear idea of the performances. They 

 keep it up continually in season and out, but the talk is deliberate rather 

 than " chattering." They are never still for a minute and their curiosity 

 is insatiable. Every morning our camp was the center of interest and 

 conversation to a group of these long-tailed clowns, uniting the gravity 

 of judges with the talkativeness of a debating society. At Camp 11 a 

 nearby creek bed cut down some twelve feet below the general level and 

 dry and parched in the sun was the repository of our empty cans and table 

 scraps. Magpies were always in attendance and no sooner had the falling 

 can ceased its noisy rattling and come to rest than a " Pie " was on hand 

 to glean what it might from its depths. They seemed to go in small 

 companies, probably original families though perhaps in some cases more 

 than one brood had joined together and haunted the brush in the wooded 

 river edges or the low dense tangle on hill tops sailing from clump to clump 

 and furtively following one another from cover to cover. Their nests were 

 conspicuous objects in the heavier bush. Great oval masses of sticks 

 four or five feet high and two or three feet through with the nest in the 

 center reached by openings in opposite sides for ingress and egress. The 

 fact that we invariably found them in the neighborhood or not more than 

 a hundred yards or so from nests of Red-tail or Swainson's Hawks may or 

 may not have a meaning; nor is it clear, if it is more than accidental, 

 which — the "Pie " or the hawk — was first to choose the locality. Speci- 

 mens were obtained at Camps 5| and 11 while we have others from Rumsey 

 and Morrin collected by Geo. Sternberg. 



Farley, Horsbrough and Dr. George of Red Deer, all declare that this 

 species is increasing. Farley writes, — " No one knew this bird ten years 

 ago and for the past few years a month does not pass that some one does 

 not ask about it. I think this about its limit line as I never saw or heard 

 of one farther north than ten miles from Camrose." 



100.* Cyanocitta cristata. Blue Jay. — Fairly common on the 

 upper parts of the river but not seen below Camp 4, near Nevis. One 

 specimen, Camp 1. Reported nesting by Horsbrough. 



101. Perisoreus canadensis. Canada Jay. — Spreadborough's hy- 

 pothetical record of this species at Red Deer is substantiated by Farley 

 who says he found two nests of the Canada Jay ten miles east of Red 

 Deer, the eggs from which he sent to W. E. Saunders of London, Ont. 

 According to Oberholser's determinations these birds should probably be 

 referred to P. c. canadensis. 



102. Corvus corax. Raven. — Farley says, — " The Raven is seen 

 nearly every November at Red Deer. I have never seen them brought in 

 except in early winter." 



103.* Corvus brachyrhynchos. American Crow. — Only fairly 

 common in the narrow parts of the valley where the river is in closer 



