po -GIR The Yellow-billed Magpie. 
[July, 
lined with finer twigs and strips of the inner bark of the cotton- 
wood. A few of the nests we examined were newly made, but 
the majority were old nests which had been used in previous 
years. Quite a number of old deserted nests were found, partic- 
ularly inf the live oaks near this mouth of the cafion, where we 
found no recent nests at all. But a few years before a school- 
house had been built near this grove of oaks, and the “ small 
boy” proved too much for even the magpies, who retreated up 
the cañon, leaving their tents behind them. | 
The eggs of the yellow-bill magpie vary considerably in color 
as well as in size and general shape. The description of the color 
given in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, and copied by Mr. Oliver 
Davie in his “ Egg Check-list of North American Birds,” is 
applicable to nearly all the specimens I have seen, viz, “ The 
- ground-color is a light drab, so clearly marked with fine cloud- 
ings of an obscure lavender color as nearly to conceal the ground, 
and to give the egg the appearance of an almost violet-brown.’ 
One set of four in my collection has the lavender very pro- 
nounced, and in quite large spots or blotches, rather most numer- 
ous about the larger end. The eggs of this set measure 1.35 X 
95, 1-43 x .90, 1.29 x .90 and 1.33 x .94—the average 1.35 * 89, 
being the largest of any of the sets I have seen. Another set of 
= eight gives 1.18 X .85 as the smallest, 1.40 X .85 as the largest 
and 1.30 X .8 as the average. The average of a set of six give? 
by Mr. Davie is 1.30 X .89, and on another page he gives 1.20 X 
.92, presumably the average of many sets, B.B. & R. give i 
x .9O as the measurement of an egg from Monterey, Cal. Fhese 
last measurements seem rather under the average of those I have 
seen. 
Several of the nests to which we climbed were old deserted 
_ Ones, and contained no eggs. Mr. Corey, after much iy 
reached one in which he was surprised to find a set of ¢gs® 
_ the sparrow-hawk (Zinnunculus sparverius). 
While we had been quite successful in securing many 
__ of beautiful eggs, these material things alone did not oe 
; the profits which the day had brought to us. During our rag he 
_ing ride, besides the objects already mentioned, we had seen, © 
Jeyed and conversed about a score of other things no less es 
tive. And now in the evening, as the sun sank beyond them se 4 
and the highest peaks of the cafion’s walls received its last war i 
good sets 
represent 
