; 1887] Zoology. 1123 
is usually the first bird mentioned. I am told by a dozen or 
more reliable persons that it was a greater pest than the common 
crow: pecking holes in the backs of fat hogs, eating off the tips 
of their ears, etc. They were very numerous in the fall and 
winter; one reliable witness stating that, about twenty years ago, 
he put out poison for the wolves, and on going to the spot the 
next morning found no less than forty dead magpies. The “ Birds 
of North America in Smithsonian Institution,” published in 1860, 
gives descriptions of twenty magpies killed in 1856, at various 
points on the Missouri from central Eastern Nebraska to the 
Black Hills. 
Iam fully satisfied that twenty or thirty years ago the magpie 
(P. hudsonica) made its annual fall and winter visit to the Missouri 
River bottoms, extending from Southeast Dakota to the Kansas 
State line, some few breeding in this section —W. Edgar Taylor, 
State Normal, Peru, Neb. 
Missouri River Crow-Roosts.—In vol. xx. p. 780, AMERICAN 
NATURALIST, it is stated that “ the number of crows in the West- 
ern States, comparatively speaking, are so insignificant that their 
roosting-places have not been noticed by the ordinary observer.” 
Probably the writer did not aim to include the Missouri Valley, 
Incorrect. 
A large roost of C. americanus, covering perhaps four or five 
= acres, exists on Hogthief Island, in the Missouri River, about six 
miles above Peru, Neb., and fifteen miles below Nebraska City. 
Two other good-sized roosts are known, one ten miles north, and 
the other on an island eight miles south of Hogthief Island. Mr. 
N. S. Goss, author of “ Kansas Birds,” in a letter written October 
29, 1887, says, “ The crows had, several years ago, quite a large 
A g on and 
: „near this island for at least twenty-five years, beyond which time, 
Owing to the new settlement of the country, I have not, so far, 
en able to trace their history. Probably, at some time previous 
