THE OOLOGIST. 



IT 



and shape. Some taken were short 

 and rounded, others long and eliptical, 

 Again some would be heavily blotched 

 with lilac and buffy or purplish brown, 

 while others would be minutely dotted 

 with lilac, buffy and grayish brown. 

 The markings ai'e distributed over the 

 entire shell. The average size is from 

 1.20 to 1.40 X .90 to 1. 00. 



In coloration the Yellow-billed Mag- 

 pie is a beautiful bird- The plumage 

 of the head, neck, breast, back and 

 scapulars is a deep lustrous black, in 

 high plumage with an iridescent tinge 

 on the cranium; the belly is white; 

 wings and tail black glossed on upper 

 side with a beautiful greenish and pur- 

 ple iridescent gloss, which attains high- 

 est development in November, Decem- 

 ber and January, becoming duller and 

 less noticeable as summer advances, 

 till in the latter part of the summer it 

 is hardly noticeable: a large wing patch 

 and the lower border of scapulars 

 white; feet black: iris brown; bill and 

 skin about eye rich yellow. 



The size of the adult male will be 

 about 19x23x10. An adult female will 

 be similarly colored, but decidedly 

 smallei", averaging about 18x21x8.75. 



The Magpie is a proverbially noisy 

 bird. A group of three or four talking 

 to each other can make noise enough 

 for a dozen. He is an arrant thief and 

 will steal and eat anything, worms, 

 fruit, eggs or carrion. They are very 

 fond of ripe figs and can always be 

 found in the fig trees. They are also 

 very partial to eggs and are the contin- 

 ued objects of vituperation for the tur- 

 key raisers and farmers. One man I 

 know of covered the entrance to his 

 hen-house with a sack, hung like a cur- 

 tain, Bud treated each nest in like man- 

 ner and then taught his hens to go 

 in under the curtains to lay! He said 

 that was the only way he could get an 

 egg to eat! 



The Magpies are very wary of man 

 and will keep well out of shot gun 



range, though easily approached on 

 horseback or in a buggy. Their flight 

 resembles that of a Jay and their ap- 

 pearance on the ground is rather hide- 

 ous. They hold the tail at an angle 

 above the horizontal and strut about 

 with a pompous air. 



I caught a half-grown Magpie last 

 year and tried to raise him by hand. 

 His appetite was something enormous. 

 He soon got so he would open his 

 mouth and squawk whenever- he heard 

 a footstep, so we called him "Oliver 

 Twist," and he thrived on a diet of 

 bi'ead and milk, dry bread and egg and 

 cornmeal. But one day he took cold 

 and passed in his checks. 



They are said to be gitted with the 

 power of speech, on condition there is 

 an operation performed on the tongue, 

 but as I never could find out whether 

 the cord below the tongue was cut, the 

 tongue slit, end cut off or tongue cut 

 off altogether, I have never experi- 

 mented. Henry B. Kaeding, 

 . Amador Co., Calif. 



I noted a set of 1-9, fresh, April 21, 

 '96, the only 1-9 set I have ever found: 

 also 1-1, incubation |!! Probably a Jay 

 got the others, but this single egg was 

 being incubated. H. B. K. 



A Peculiar Site for an Oriole's Nest. 



Last June, in the grounds of my South- 

 ern California home, a pair of Hooded 

 Orioles took a queer fancy to build a 

 nest suspended under a banana leaf, 

 growing from a tree some 20ofeet high, 

 near my veranda. Now to those un- 

 acquainted with the banana plant I will 

 say that the leaves are often several 

 yards long and more than a foot wide, 

 and presenting as they do a broad sur- 

 face to the wind, they become very 

 much tattered and frayed by the time 

 they are fully grown. But Mrs. O. did 

 not know that apparently, for after 

 having critically surveyed the situation 



