THE YELLOW-BILLED MACxPIE. 355 



138. Pica nuttalli Audubon. 



YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE. 



Pica nuttalli Audubon, Ornithological Biography, IV, 1838, 450, PL 362. 

 (B 433, C 233a, E 287, C 348, U 476.) 



Geographical range : Middle California, west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains only. 



The breeding range of the Yellow-billed Magpie is coextensive with its 

 geographical distribution, and it is a constant resident where found. Its habitat, 

 however, is much more restricted than that of its larger relative, and it is only 

 found in the middle portions of the State of California, west of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, from Ventura County in the south to Tehama County in 

 the north, occupying about one-half of the area of the State only. Thirty years 

 ago it was common in many places in the immediate vicinity of the coast where 

 it is but rarely met with now. It resembles the Black-billed Magpie in every 

 particular excepting in the color of the bill which is yellow; this color is 

 brighter in the birds found in the southern portions than in those approaching- 

 the range of the American Magpie in northeastern California. It also averages 

 a trifle smaller in size, and its general habits are similar. It is a constant 

 attendant about the various cattle and sheep ranches found scattered through 

 the interior of California, and here it subsists mainly on the offal, carrion, etc., 

 found in the vicinity of such places, this being* in addition to its usual diet of 

 grasshoppers, worms, grubs, etc. Small colonies are sometimes found breeding* 

 in some secluded canyon in the neighborhood of such ranches, but more often 

 each pair occupy some gulch or ravine by themselves. Their bulky and conspic- 

 uous nests are placed in oaks by preference, next in sycamores, willows, and 

 cottonwoods, and sometimes in very exposed situations where they can be readily 

 noticed for quite a distance; generally however, they are well hidden, especially 

 when placed in a thick bunch of mistletoe. They are constructed like those of 

 the preceding species, but are more frequently placed in large trees and rarely 

 in bushes; sometimes three or four nests will be built in the same tree if it 

 be a large one. 



Their usual height from the ground varies from 30 to 60 feet, and they are 

 often placed on the extremity of a limb, where they are hard to reach. Some 

 of the nests, besides the usual lining of fine roots, dry grass, pine needles, and 

 hair, contain bits of dry cow dung and the fine inner bark of the cottonwood. 



Mr. Rollo H. Beck, of Berryessa, California, writes me that he has noticed 

 the male feeding its mate while incubating, and that the latter would flap her 

 wings and call like a young- bird, and according to him their usual call note 

 sounds like "que, que, que," or "queek, queek." 



The average number of eggs laid is about seven. Sets of eight and nine 

 are more rarely found than in the case of the American Magpie. They are 

 indistinguishable from those of that species, but average a trifle smaller, and 

 specimens showing a greenish tinge in the ground color appear to me to be 

 more frequently met with. 



