= 
Duly, 
608 The Yellow-billed Magpie. 
Such a place as this is Wheeler cañon, a few miles down the 
Santa Clara valley from Santa Paula. By former visits to this 
cañon I had kept myself informed as to the progress these birds 
were making in their nesting. So on April 2, 1881, Mr. Fred. 
Corey and I paid the cañon a visit, believing that many “ full 
sets” would be gotten. We started from home early in the 
morning and drove down to the cañon, fully prepared to spend 
the day. As we drove leisurely along the foot of the mountain 
_ slope, numerous brown birds (Pupilo fuscus crissalis) and valley 
quails (Callipepla californica) scurried from our path and hid 
themselves in the sage-bush chaparral which there abounds; 
and an occasional burrowing owl (Speotyto cunicularia hypogea) 
would salute us with a school-boy bow as we passed. Where 
the cañon opens into the valley are many large spreading live 
oaks which, with their dark-green foliage and spreading form, 
resemble large apple-trees. Many of them have beautifully 
rounded tops, whose bases are only a few feet from the ground, 
- and whose small dark-green leaves are so thickly set that it is 
impossible to see among the branches except from below. Far- 
ther up the cañon are a number of cottonwoods and a few wil- 
lows, and still farther more oaks and several sycamores. 
He who has collected only here in the East hardly knows how 
rich may be the results of a day spent in such a cafion as this. 
-~ Here every tree could be climbed with no great difficulty, and 
anything it might contain was nearly always obtainable. When 
we reached the sycamores and cottonwoods the hooded and Bal: 
8 lock’s ‘orioles, happiest of all the cafion’s happy birds, flitted 
among the green leaves, delighting the eye with their royal dress, 
_ and the ear with their rich melody of song. And a pair of mag- 
pies flew up, from the edge of a little stream where they ʻa% 
come to make their morning toilet, and perched upon a cere 
= wood near by. Emphasis was given to their scoldings by excite 
`, Jerkings of the tail and body after the manner of the jay- Be 
as we had decided to begin collecting at the upper end om 
_cofion, we passed on without disturbing the riest which we plainly 
_ Saw in the tree’s top. As we neared the upper end of the gt 
_ a California vulture (Psendogryphus californianus) rose from ” 
_ ground in front of us, where lay a dead pig upon which 
feasting, and soared away to the higher mountains. I gree 
no bird of more majestic flight than this great vulture of out 
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