384 LAND BIRDS 



ranking with burrowing owls and prairie dogs. From 

 the time one first catches a glimpse of these Magpies until 

 one's face is set homeward, they are a fascinating study. 

 Much handsomer and more intelligent than crows, they 

 are comparatively less known. The average Westerner 

 regards them as a nuisance, and I suspect he is not far 

 wrong in this estimate, but, like their relatives the jays, 

 they yet have something to commend them. 



About Lake Tahoe the Black-billed Magpies abound ; 

 they build their nests in the young oaks as close to the 

 dobryards as they are allowed. One pair that I watched 

 had nested for six years in the same tree ten feet from a 

 dwelling, and were almost as tame as chickens. They 

 were tolerated on the ground that small rodents will not 

 come where they are. While this theory is not entirely 

 borne out by the facts, there is a grain of truth in it, for 

 a magpie will watch the burrow of a ground squirrel 

 like a terrier at a rat hole and pounce as swiftly on his 

 victim. His curiosity knows no bounds, and any un- 

 usual appearance of the neighborhood he must investi- 

 gate and talk over. An experiment of hanging bits of 

 black, white, red, and yellow cloth on the bushes near 

 the abode of magpies resulted in a curious selection of 

 the yellow and white first and an apparent terror of the 

 red. Repeated experiments seemed to prove that this 

 color was repulsive to the birds, and for a long time I 

 could not guess why, knowing that raw red meat was 

 a favorite dainty. Finally, noticing how excited both 

 birds became at the approach of some little Indian girls 

 who lived in the fishing village and who were dressed in 



