482 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
were a number of nests in marshy valley land at about 9,000 feet (Ligon). Common 
in the Jemez, Carson, and Pecos National Forests (Ligon, 1916-1918); plentiful near 
Valley Ranch on the Upper Pecos in summer and resident in Rio Arriba County 
(Leopold).] It breeds from the lower canyons of its range about 7,000 feet, even as 
low as 5,000 feet near Shiprock (Gilman), up to 9,500 feet in Costilla Canyon. 
After the breeding season, it has been taken south to the Manzano Mountains 
(Gaut); [Alameda, October, 1918, and Bosque Ranch south of Isleta, fall of 1917 and 
# From Biological Survey 
Fig. 84. Young American Magpies 
Late Magpie broods are sometimes fed on alfalfa weevil larvae 
1918; Tome and Piralta 1919-20 (Leopold)]; and to near McKnight Creek in the 
Mimbres Mountains directly west of Hillsboro Peak (Bergtold); in the Guadalupe 
Mountains the last of September, 1900 (W. L. Knight); and reported from the Sacra- 
mentos. In Union County, several were seen November 5, 1915 (Ligon). In the 
fall it ranges over the upper slopes of the mountains to at least 10,700 feet in the 
Culebra Mountains (Bailey); and to 10,400 feet below Pecos Baldy (Surber). 
In the winter, these higher parts are deserted and the flocks congregate in the 
valleys at 5,000-8,000 feet. [Observed about Santa Fc in winter, and 3 poisoned at a 
carcass 12 miles south of Lamy, February 1917 (Ligon); noted near Bernardo, 
December 28, 1919 (Leopold); common in northern Santa Fe County in fall and 
winter (Jensen, 1923).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Usually in colonies, in thickets or trees; an inside cup made of twigs, 
rootlets, and dry grasses, cemented with mud, lined with grass, hair, and sometimes 
pine needles, more or less completely enclosed by an open lattice-work of coarse sticks, 
at times making a mass as large or larger than a bushel basket, with a lateral covered 
entrance. Eggs: 7 to 10, dull grayish or sometimes greenish, dotted, dashed, and 
heavily blotched with purple and brown, usually covering the whole surface. 
