FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



" head of the pew " was happily lost in a doze) — 

 once more, I say, but the once may run into twice 

 or thrice, here is the yellow-billed magpie. You 

 remember, and think of it often, the long sunny 

 day that you spent in pursuit of the bird down 

 in the beautiful Carmel Valley, near Monterey ; 

 but you have never noticed till this minute that 

 the type of the species was taken here at Santa 

 Barbara seventy-five years ago. You wonder how 

 long it is since the last one was seen in this 

 neighborhood. There is nothing of the kind here 

 now, unless it be on the other side of the moun- 

 tains, a long distance from the city itself; so 

 much you can vouch for. First and last you have 

 seen a good many from car-windows in riding up 

 and down the Sacramento and San Joaquin Val- 

 leys, but you have never seen nor heard of one 

 in Santa Barbara. It is a -good bird to see any- 

 where, a bird of a most remarkably restricted 

 range (like the Florida jay — and not like the 

 black-throated green warbler), being found in a 

 certain small section of California and nowhere 

 else in the world. You are pleased to know that 

 Audubon named it (after his friend Nuttall — 

 Pica nuttalli) from an example taken in this 

 most delightful of California places. 



Few birds but possess some interesting pecul- 

 iarity. This magpie is not the only one that had its 

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