A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of The Audubon Societies 



Vol. XIV 



November — December, 1912 



No. 6 



The Magpies of Culebra Creek 



By EDWARD R. WARREN 



With photographs by the author 



I 



HAVE seen many Magpies during my more 

 than thirty years residence in Colorado, 

 but nowhere have I seen so many within a 

 limited space as I saw this last summer (191 2) 

 along about three miles of Culebra Creek, near 

 San Acacio, Costilla County, Colorado. There 

 may have been as many above the portion I 

 explored, and very likely were, as the conditions 

 were equally favorable, but below, the trees 

 were practically absent, and therefore the 

 birds. The conditions which were so favorable 

 to the abundance of these birds were plenty 

 of willow and Cottonwood trees for nesting- 

 sites; while there was an entire absence of them 

 on the surrounding country, a level prairie, 

 part of the San Luis Valley. Another thing 

 which I think may have contributed to this 

 plenty is the fact that the region is an old 

 Mexican grant, and the land has all been under 

 private ownership, and not public land open 

 jto settlement ; hence there have been but few people about to molest the 

 ibirds, and they have bred and multiplied in peace. 



j However that may be, they were there in hundreds, if not in thousands. 

 jAs one walked among the trees, he could see the bulky nests on every hand, 

 [sometimes as many as five in a single tree. Of course, not all had been occupied 

 this season, many were old and abandoned; but, if only a third had been in 

 juse, that means that many young were hatched; and there certainly were, for 

 jevery little way a family would be seen near a nest. I happened to be there 

 jjust when the youngsters were beginning to come out of the nests and climbing 

 ibout in the home trees, hardly able to use their wings, and, if the Editor will 



A SQUAWKER 



