THE OOLOGIST 



even before I began to climb upward, 

 botli birds were flying nervously about 

 overhead or sitting momentarily near- 

 by, chattering and scolding in magpie 

 dialect. I somehow always liked to 

 hear that magpie talk, it sounds rather 

 human, and I have no doubt it is very 

 expressive of magpie impulses and 

 feelings. Since I could not under- 

 stand magpie talk, however, I went 

 about my business of examining that 

 nest and its contents. It was made 

 in the usual magpie manner, with a 

 bowl or basement of mud and clay, 

 this part being six inches across the 

 top inside, and four and one-half 

 inches deep; and it was lined with 

 dark rootlets and a scanty amount of 

 horse-hair. Above and around this 

 was a lattice-work of rough twigs and 

 slender sticks, extending for about 

 two feet vertically, a nice roomy, well- 

 ventilated protection to Mrs. Magpie 

 when sitting in her mud basement. 

 There were no special openings for 

 ingress or egress, and it is apparent 

 that the owner can slip through the 

 twigs most anywhere to get into the 

 nest. At the time of my visit this 

 nest held eight eggs, which constitutes 

 a fair complement, as I have found 

 all the way from seven to thirteen 

 eggs in full complements of this 

 species, though eight and nine are 

 more common than the other num- 

 bers. 



Nest No. 2 A. American Magpie. 

 On this particular day nests of the 

 magpie had become an old story, so I 

 took the trouble to look in only one 

 more. This was in a haw tree in a 

 thicket of these thorny trees, well 

 hidden from view from the outside, 

 and hard to get at except by squirm- 

 ing through the closely-set stems and 

 branches. When I saw the male fly- 

 ing about on the outskirts of the 

 thicket, however, I decided to push in 

 and see what could be found. The 



nest was twelve feet from the ground, 

 in an upright crotch of haw, and I had 

 to take several punctures in various 

 portions of my anatomy before I could 

 get my l;and into the magpie struct- 

 ure. This nest had a bowl of clayey 

 mud, dried and flrm-set as usual, six 

 and one-half inches across the cavity 

 at the top, and flve inches deep, — a 

 typical nest in this respect. It had a 

 large strong canopy or lattice-work 

 made in approved magpie fashion. I 

 have often wondered what this open- 

 formation canopy was for, anyway; it 

 will certainly not shelter from the 

 rain, but it will generally keep out 

 snow, and Mrs. Magpie can expect at 

 least one snow storm while she is 

 sitting on her eggs and feeding the 

 young in the nest. In this instance 

 there were nine eggs, a full com- 

 plement. 



Nest No. 3. April 30. American 

 Magpie. Most of the nests of the mag- 

 pie in this locality are found in the 

 ravines or coulees, or in the willow 

 and haw thickets of the lower creeks; 

 many nests, however, are in the large 

 yellow pines scattered along the upper 

 parts of the ravines, where the 

 benches merge into the foothills. In 

 such locations the nests are placed 

 on horizontal branches, out from the 

 main trunk, and thus situated they 

 are more difficult to reach. Nest No. 

 3 was in one of the many little coulees 

 opening into the Spring Creek valley. 

 It was located in a haw tre, about 

 twelve feet from the ground, among 

 oblique upward forks. The basement 

 of dried mud was six inches across 

 the top of the cavity, and flve inches 

 deep. There was an inner nest of 

 dark rootlets. This nest had a very 

 bulky canopy of interwoven sticks, 

 and only slight arrangements for so- 

 called entrances; that is, several 

 places were left where the birds could 

 slip through, any one of which might 



