.May, 1911 
MV AVIAN VISITORS: NOTES. PROM SOI'TH DAKOTA 
91 
few words. A gentleman who has spent much time among the Indians informs 
me that on one occasion when he -was passing a modern Siouan home a Magpie on 
the haystack distinctly uttered the words “How, kola!” — wdiich, being interpreted, 
is “Howdy-do, friend!” I myself have heard a tame crow “talk Indian.” 
A young Magpie that I took from a nest in this vicinity and brought to Il- 
linois, became very much of a pet. It w'as allowed the freedom of the town, and 
took a legitimate advantage of its liberty, always coming home to roost and feed. 
This bird suffered an untimely death by drowning in a barrel of water, and his 
taking-off was the cause of much lamentation in the hou.sehold to which he had 
been attached for nearly a year. 
Magpies soon learn to distinguish the sound uttered by a person when calling 
the chickens to be fed, and are apt to appear suddenly and unbidden to partake of 
the meal. More than this, they are known ‘to have a liking for the flesh of the 
very young chicks themselves, and it is therefore unsafe to allow a hen with a 
brood less than fifteen da3's old to range far where there are Magpies in the 
neighborhood. 
When the breeding season commences the Pies keep close in the thick tree- 
grow’th along the creek where they build their massive nests; and now' they come 
to us in pairs occasionally instead of in a flock as at all other periods. At this 
season they utter a note not heard at other times, — a soft, tender call, hard to de- 
scribe or imitate. It has often been said that their nests are “as large as bushel- 
baskets,” but structures much larger than this are common. Where I observed 
them, nests wnth eggs were most numerous in the month of May. Tw'o nests 
w'hich I examined in 1903 w'ere about ten feet from the ground. On May 7, 1904, 
I found a nest saddled upon buffalo-berry saplings, and so low that I had to look 
dowui instead of to climb up, in order to peer into it. On the date mentioned it 
contained two eggs, and an additional one was laid each day thereafter until the 
clutch, numbering seven eggs, was complete. A short time afterward this nest 
was robbed by Indians. Among these people, by the w'ay, sympathy for animals 
is an unknown virtue, as to some extent is the case among small boys, who, like 
savages, sometimes lack certain of the nobler instincts, and, as one consequence, 
are often responsible for much suffering among animals. 
Nearly every bird has its owui manner of flight, and although it be far off 
where color and form alike are indistinguishable, yet the student of ornithology 
ascertains from its way of progression through the air to what species a given bird 
may belong. The peculiar w'avy flight of that small bird tells him of a goldfinch; 
the similar, but heavier, flight of the woodpecker is knowui to him; like an arrow 
the Mourning Dove shoots by, wdiile perchance the whi.stling of its w’ings may be 
heard; sailing with the clouds, high overhead, are the nighthaw'ks and sw'allow's; 
and in the near horizon that lazily flying creature wfith the tail of a comet is a 
Magpie. Sometimes I have conjectured that that strange bird the Archaeopteryx, 
bore a similar general appearance as he flew through the pleasant air in that far- 
off Jurassic day. 
To my fodder-stacks, in early spring, came the Western Meadowlark {Stur- 
nella neglecia) . This is a bird of marked individuality; it differs from the Eastern 
Meadowlark in appearance, and its highly variable melody is quite unlike the song 
of its congener. On two occasions when passing through the sand-hills, a few 
miles to the south, while the .songs of meadowlarks filled the air, I could easily 
distinguish the notes of the eastern birds, one or tw'O of which I now had the 
pleasure of seeing for the first time in that country among the multitudes of the 
