THE OOLOGIST 



be denominated an entrance or door- 

 way tliougli no one opening was more 

 noticeable than any other. The nest 

 complement in this instance was eight 

 eggs. 



Nest. No. 4. April 30. American 

 Magpie. This nest was in the same 

 coulee as Nest No. 3, and it is noted 

 because of its unusual size. In fact, 

 its large and massive appearance sug- 

 gested to me that it certainly be- 

 longed to a pair which expected a 

 numerous progency and they had 

 planned their house accordingly, but 

 how easily we are mislead by exterior 

 indications, it held only seven eggs. 

 The basement bowl of this nest meas- 

 ured ten inches across the cavity at 

 the top, and six inches deep. There 

 was the customary inner lining of 

 dark rootlets and horse-hair, and the 

 imposing super-structure of sticks was 

 so regularly made that it had no 

 special places for entrance. 



Nest No. 5. May 7. American Mag- 

 pie. This nest was in a willow thicket 

 in an overflowed place near Spring 

 Creek. It was made on very oblique 

 branches of willow saplings, about 

 eight feet from the water below. The 

 mud bowl was six inches across and 

 four inches deep. The inner nest or 

 lining was made of dark rootlets and 

 many black horse-hairs. The canopy 

 was merely typical. In the case the 

 birds were on an outing when I ar- 

 rived, but both soon came near when 

 they found that the peace of their 

 home was threatened. There were 

 nine eggs in this nest. 



Nest No. 6, May 1, American Magpie. 

 This nest w^as in a haw tree of a 

 thicket near Big Spring creek. It was 

 ten feet from the ground, in an up- 

 right crotch. This structure was 

 peculiar in having the canopy on one 

 side, not around and above as usual. 

 but rather as if it had fallen partially 

 over, exposing the other side. The 



adobe basement was typical in size 

 and structure, as also the inner nest or 

 lining. There were nine eggs in this 

 complement. 



Nest No. 7. May 7. American Mag- 

 pie. This nest was in an upright fork 

 of a haw, ten feet from the ground, 

 in a thicket. Adobe basement, inner 

 nest, and canopy, all were typical, but 

 it contained thirteen eggs, all evenly 

 marked and evenly incubated, clearly 

 deposited by one bird. This was a 

 record-breaker among nest comple- 

 ments of this species, for in an ex- 

 perience of twelve years with the mag- 

 pie the writer never before met with 

 a set of this number, and only once 

 with a set of twelve. And then I 

 wondered why the set of seven hap- 

 pened to be in the unusually large 

 nest, and the set of thirteen in a nest 

 of merely typical size. 



Nest No. 8. Desert Horned Lark. 

 This nest was found on May 9, on one 

 of the benches near Lewistown. I 

 was strolling over the bench in _i 

 ramble toward the close of the day, 

 with an eye open ahead for any nest- 

 ing lark that might step into view, 

 and soon the expected happened. If 

 the eggs are well incubated the 

 female will sit longer, not stepping 

 out of the nest until the intruder is 

 within ten to twenty feet. I have 

 never known an instance where a 

 sitting horned lark permitted herself 

 to sit so close that she had to flutter 

 from the nest, as many of the ground 

 nesting birds do when their nests are 

 approached. This particular nest was 

 made beside a tuft of spare grass, 

 and partially sunken into the base of 

 the insignificant grass-stem. It was 

 constructed of dried grass, soft pistils, 

 and small feathers. There were four 

 eggs in this nest. 



Another nest of Desert Horned Lark 

 was found the same day on this same 

 bench. The female was started from 



