The Yellow-billed Magpie 



or fancied), it is not at all improbable that the species may be extirpated, 

 a truly deplorable event. 



The Yellow-billed Magpie usually breeds in scattered colonies, 

 either in the cottonwoods of river-bottoms, in the oak trees, whether 

 "live" or deciduous, which dot the lower levels of the foothills, or else 

 in the mixed cover, oak, ceanothus, and digger pine, which clothes the 

 middle levels of the hills. The birds are very much attached to the 

 locality of their choice, 

 returning year after year 

 to occupy the same trees, 

 and in some instances en- 

 during persecution on 

 this account to the point 

 of extinction. At other 

 times, and especially in 

 level country dotted with 

 white oaks, the colony will 

 shift from year to year. 



A Magpie's nest, big 

 as a bushel basket, would 

 seem to be about the 

 most conspicuous arti- 

 ficial object in a tree-top : 

 but it so happens that the distributional area of Pica nuttalli nearly 

 coincides with that of the mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens Nutt. and 

 P. villosum Nutt.). As a result we have trees full of Magpies' nests — 

 to appearance — with never a bird about. Or, if the birds are about, 

 they are cunning enough to avail themselves of the mistletoe bunches, 

 either building in the clump itself, or building in trees generously pro- 

 vided with these puzzling decoys. One Magpie's nest I found in San 

 Luis Obispo County was only one of twenty-five likely-looking chances 

 in a single tree. 



If undisturbed, a pair of birds will usually return to the same tree 

 each season, rarely, indeed, to occupy last year's nest, but often to use it 

 as a foundation for the new structure. Double nests, on this account, are 

 common, and I once found a composite structure, a huge pile, representing 

 the work of four successive seasons. When approached, the sitting bird 

 usually sits tight until the climber is within a few feet of the nest. Then 

 she makes good her escape from the opposite side, and takes care for the 

 nonce to keep the nest, or the tree, or both, between herself and the 

 pursuer. 



Taken in 

 San Luis 

 Obispo County 



Photo by 

 the Author 



THE CHOLAME NESTING 



41 



