About the House. 65 



are also more restricted. This is an eminently sociable bird, common in 

 all towns and breeding in the several kinds of oaks that are in such general 

 use as shade and ornamental trees. 



The Magpie is a common species in Western North America, and has 



been recorded from Montreal and Illinois. They are large Jay like birds, 



some nineteen inches long, the tail being very conspicuous. 



American Magpie. Their prevailing colors are lustrous black, with iridescent 



Pica pica hudsonica (Sab.). 11-1 i r i 



metallic shades of deep blue, purple and greenish. The 

 white above is confined to a broad patch on each wing. White is the pre- 

 vailing color below except on the breast and throat. They build very large 

 partially covered nests, of coarse material, and lay from six to nine eggs. 

 These are crow-like in general color and appearance. They are more than 

 an inch and a quarter long and nine tenths of an inch broad. 



This bird is the smallest of our Flycatchers, the average length being 



about five and one half inches. Its general colors are olive on the upper 



parts, greenish or brown in tone, and grayer on the head. 



Empidonax minimus ' There are two wing bars of ashy white. The lower parts 



Baird. are wm - tej tinged with gray on the breast and sides, with 



sometimes a faint wash of yellow on the white of the belly. The lower 



mandible is dusky brown. 



This is a bird of Eastern North America, breeding from Pennsylvania 

 north into Canada and wintering in Central America. The nest of rootlets, 

 strips of bark and plant fibres, is a compact, cup shaped structure, placed 

 generally in fork or crotch from ten to twenty feet from the ground. The 

 eggs are pure white without markings, rather more than three fifths of an 

 inch long and half an inch in their smaller diameter. This is a common 

 species, frequenting orchards and the vicinity of cultivated grounds rather 

 than the woods. It has a jerky, imperative call, which has been well de- 

 scribed by the word " chebec," so characteristic as to have become one of the 

 common names of the bird. 



In the early spring days, before the leaves appear, just after the Blue- 

 birds and Robins arrive, comes a rather slim bird, with long tail and large 



