484 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
pardoned for looking upon them impersonally, broadly, as appro¬ 
priately remarkable inhabitants of the great West. They are such 
large striking birds, with their handsome glossy black and snowy 
white plumage, long tails, and direct, powerful flight that even a single 
one would command the attention of the passing field worker; but as 
they generally go in noisy flocks, the places where they are encountered 
become interesting milestones in ornithological journeys, good to recall. 
Each meeting hints of the life and habits of these original characters, 
foi they are always full of business, quite absorbed in important matters 
of their own. 
On our way up to Pecos Baldy with a pack outfit, in 1903, when 
reaching the open mesa, at 10,400 feet, three or four Ravens and four 
Magpies were discovered perched on a corral fence near the carcass of 
a cow, and to our amusement the Ravens, jealous of their feast, ignored 
us entirely in attempting to get rid of the Magpies. As we were 
driving from Las Vegas north to Taos Pass a month later, near Sapello 
a flock of thirty or forty Magpies flew up in alarm as we rattled by; 
a few miles south of Mora, two days afterwards a flock of about fifty, 
found in a hayfield were too engrossed catching grasshoppers to notice 
us. Two specimens, reluctantly taken, had their gizzards full of the 
big wingless kind. Magpies were also seen in driving along Coyote 
Creek Valley, the large, black-coated birds flying spectacularly about 
among the great bare masses of red sandstone—a picture to remember. 
An old nest on Coyote Creek, that varied from the usual globular form 
in being oddly roofed over on the southwest by slanting sticks, was 
carefully photographed, and we were reminded that the birds are said 
to gather at old nesting grounds eveiy year to repair the nests that are 
not too dilapidated. One that suggested long use actually boasted 
several stories. On the east slope of the Taos Mountains Magpies 
were encountered at 8,800 feet; a little below, at a ranch on the edge 
of the Moreno Valley, old nests were found in a friendly neighborhood 
in the willows, and later a flock of about eighteen Of the carnivorous 
birds was met with, apparently attracted by the killing of a beef. 
Five or six were watchfully waiting for favors, while a dozen more 
were passing the time doing scavenger duty by disposing of a dead 
prairie dog. On the west slope of the mountains Magpies were often 
welcomed at our camp at 7,700 feet, and in the valley below were met 
with near Taos. 
In 1904, when we had again taken up our work in the region, we 
marked another ornithological milestone on the Costilla River at 10,000 
feet, for here to our satisfaction, we encountered a flock of seventeen 
Magpies gathered at an old corral. Two days later we were interested 
to find what we took to be the same wandering flock about five miles 
farther up the valley, at 10,700 feet. This time two burros out at 
