84 ZOOLOGY. 



Rocky mountains on either side, and characterized by an arid climate and sterile soil, by 

 plains covered with artemisia and ridges of trap rock, on which grow the western cedar 

 (Juniperus occidentalis) and the yellow pine (P. brachyptera.) The black-tailed deer, (C. ma- 

 crotis,) the badger, (T. labradoria,) Townsend s hare, the little Lagomys, and striped spermo- 

 phile are its most characteristic quadrupeds, and the sage hen, Townsend s Ptilogonys, and 

 Prince Maximilian s jay some of its peculiar birds. 



We first noticed this bird when in depot camp, in the southern part of the Des Chutes basin, 

 latitude 44 12 , in the month of September. 



Early every morning flocks of from twenty-five to thirty individuals of Maximilian s jay 

 came across, with the usual straggling flight of jays, chattering as they flew to the trees on a 

 hill near camp, then, from tree to tree, they made their way to the stream to drink. Their note, 

 when flying or feeding, was a frequently repeated ca, ca, ca, sometimes, when made by a 

 straggler separated from mate or flock, rather loud and harsh, but usually soft and agreeable ; 

 when disturbed, their cry was harsher. They were very shy, and only to be shot by lying in 

 wait and firing as they passed. Subsequently, on the banks of Psuc-see-que creek, fifty miles 

 further north, I had an opportunity of seeing them feeding, and was able to watch them care 

 fully and at my leisure. They were then feeding on the berries of the cedar, (J. occidentalis,) 

 and in their habits and cries closely resembled the jays. A specimen previously killed had the oeso 

 phagus filled with the seeds of the yellow pine. From this I should infer that, like the jays, 

 they are omnivorous. I could discern no difference between the male and female. 



PICA HUDSONICA. 



The Black-billed Magpie. 



We saw none of these birds in California, though the other species was abundant ; but first 

 met with it on the banks of Mpto-ly-as river, a tributary of the Des Chutes, about one hundred 

 miles south of the Columbia. Subsequently we saw them, occasionally, on the Columbia, but 

 nowhere in great numbers. If my own observations were my only guide, I should say that 

 it was less gregarious in habit than P. Nuttalii, for all the birds of this species which we 

 noticed were solitary or in pairs, while the yellow-billed magpie is often seen in flocks of 

 several hundreds. 



Nearer the coast, the black-billed magpie ranges much lower than we saw it, coming into 

 California and occupying, over a limited area, the same territory with the other species. 



In the interior basin, to the eastward of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains, we saw 

 no magpie of either species. Like the crows, they shun so sterile a region, and we found them 

 again, with the crows, on our northward march, when we came into a more productive district. 

 This species seemed to me more shy than the other magpie of the west. Like all the corvidae, 

 however, the magpies are shy and wary, or impudent and familiar, as the fit takes them, or 

 perhaps as their necessities or fancies govern them. 



PICA NUTTALLI. 



The Yellow-billed Magpie. 



This beautiful bird inhabits the valleys of California in great numbers, but, probably, never 

 extends its range northward as far as the Oregon line, at least I could not learn that it had 

 ever been seen so far north ; and the other species (P. hudsonica) seems there entirely to 

 replace it. 



