COllVID/E — THE CHOWS. 209 



flow swiftly past with (juivoriiig wings, and witli a dirt of the glittering tail 

 uml a curious cvululioii dusiiud into a dense tliici<et close by In tlie liojio 

 of seeing him again, and perliaps of finding his nest, 1 hurried to the s[)ot 

 where he had disa])]ii'ared, and jmsiu'd into the underltrusli. In a few 

 nionicnts 1 stood in a little o\)iM\ space, surrounded on all sides and covered 

 above with a network of vines interlacing the twigs and i'oliage so closely 

 that the sun's rays hardly struggled througli. A pretty shady bower ! and 

 there, sure enough, was tiie nest, not likely to be overlooked, for it was as 

 big as a buslud basket, — a globular mass, hung in the top of one of the 

 taller saplings, about twelve I'ect iVom the ground. The motlier bird was at 

 home, and my bustling ajiinoach alarmed her; she (lew out of the lU'st with 

 loud cries of distress, wiiiih Imiuglit tiie male to her side in an instant. As 

 I scrand)led up the slender trunk, which swayed with my weight, both birds 

 kept Hying about my head with redoubled outcry, aligliting for an instant, 

 then dashing past again so close that I tliought they would i)eck at nie. As 

 I had no means of preserving tiie nest, I would not take it down, and eon- 

 tented myself with such olwervations as I could make whilst bestriding a 

 limb altogether too slender for comfort. It was nearly s])herical in shajie, 

 seemed to be about eighteen inches in diameter, arched over, with a small 

 hole on one side. The walls, composed entirely of interlaced twigs liristliiig 

 outwardly in every direction, were extremely thick, the syiace insiiki being 

 much less than one would expect, and seemingly hardly enough to accom- 

 modate the bird's long tail, whicli I sup])o,se must be held u])right. The nest 

 was lined with a little coarse dried grass, and contained six young ones 

 nearly ready to lly. Authors state that the American ^Magpie lays only two 

 eggs ; but T suppose that this jiarticular pair lived too far from scientific 

 centres to find out what was exjiected of them. Other birds, noticed to-day, 

 were Steller's Jays among the i)ines and cedars, a flock of Cliri/somitris, 

 ajiparently ^j//i«s, feeding on willow-buds along the rivulet that threaded the 

 gorge, and some Kobin.s." 



The eggs of tliis jMagpie arc somewhat larger than any I have seen of 

 ]\ nuttalli, and are differently marked and colored. 8ix speciniens from 

 the Sierra Nevada exhibit tlie following measurements: 1.40 X O.itH, 1.1^2 

 X 1.00, 1.41 X 0.95, 1.28 X 0.95, 1.2G X 0.92, 1.32 X 0.9G. Their ground- 

 color is a grayi.sli-white, or light gray with a yellowish tinge, spotted with 

 blotches, dottings, and dashes of a piiri)li.sh or violet brown. In some they 

 are sparsely distributed, showing plainly the ground, more conlluenl at the 

 larger end. In others they are finer, more generally and more thickly dis- 

 tributed. In others they are much larger and of deejier color, and cover the 

 whole of the larger end with one large cloud of confluent markings. None 

 of these closely resembles the eggs of F. nuttalli. The usual number of eggs 

 in a nest, accordiiig to ]\Ir. Ridgway, varies from si.v to uiue, although it is 

 saitl that ten are sometimes found. 



