lo • THE CONDOR Vol. IX 



and Oucrcus u. gambcli) which gives way to pinon (Pi)nis ednlis) and juniper 

 {Jiinipcriis occidentalis) further down the river; while on the other side the mesa 

 supports a growth of Piims Jlcxilis which in turn gives way to the pinon and 

 juniper, with some scrub oak in the neutral zone. 



This environment and an apparent immunity from the small boy and the 

 gunner makes a condition very favorable to the study of the magpie. Where not 

 disturbed these birds become quite tame and display a familiarity which borders 

 on contempt. On the Fort Lewis school grounds no one is allowed to molest 

 them and they dispute the kitchen scraps with the chickens and cats. For a time 

 I cut all the meat used in the school and the magpies would be on hand every 

 morning at the meat house for the waste pieces of meat, fat and bone. They 

 would drive away the kittens but were more foxy with the old cats, one bird at- 

 tracting the feline attention while another annexed the meat. They were rather 

 familiar about the government kitchen and showed decided affection for the 

 garbage barrel. When the pigs were fed was their opportunity. One morning 

 when the snow was three feet deep on the level and the thermometer twelve de- 

 grees minus, I counted over one hundred of the birds at, on and in the pig pen. 

 The pigs were too busy to resent their presence and some carried from one to 

 three of the birds about on their backs — a convenient footwarmer for the magpies! 

 All winter the pig pen was a rendezvous for from 75 to 125 of the birds and a few 

 were on hand for meals during spring and sunnner tho most of them had then 

 scattered along the river for nesting. 



A peculiar feature ol their actions was a decided knowledge of the "dead line" 

 and a fair idea of the range of a shotgun. Inside of the school grounds they were 

 tame and confiding, allowing me to approach within a few yards of them. But 

 outside they were bronco and kept about 75 or 100 yards in the lead. I wished to 

 secure a few specimens but of course respected the ground rules and also the 

 birds' apparent trust in mankind. But out of bounds it was every bird for him- 

 self, and even then it was sometime before a specimen was secured. This, of 

 course, was before the nesting season. When that opened the birds became more 

 approachable, especially as they saw I did not molest them. 



The first nest of the season was found March 28, about half completed, \ 

 judged. A week later it was full of snow. On March 3[, I saw two more about 

 as far advanced in construction as the first. The birds seemed to take their time 

 in building, tho perhaps the frequent snows at that time interrupted their work. 

 For on April 28, the nest I found just a month before contained seven eggs slightly 

 incubated. The earliest instance of building was a nest with one egg on April 8, 

 which nest had a complete set of eight eggs, April 15. During tlie latter half of 

 April and the whole of May, I examined at least thirty nests. I found that the 

 earlier sets were largest, most of them containing eight eggs. Five of the seven 

 nests inspected in April had eight eggs, while two had seven each. Most of the 

 nests exanuned during the first half of May contained seven eggs. Of nests ob- 

 served after May 15, several had six eggs, two had five, and one contained four 

 eggs: all complete sets. 



Nesting places varied, many of the birds building homes in big pine trees on 

 the mesa, but the majority of nests were placed in the narrow-leaf cottonwoods 

 along the river bottom. A few built in scrub oaks, some in willows, and others in 

 black birches. The height from the ground at which the nests were built varied 

 from four to sixty feet; sixteen or eighteen feet was a fair average for the nests 

 examined. Nests built in pines were generally highest and those in willows low- 



