MAGPIES, JAYS, CROWS: MAGPIE 
485 
pasture were the attraction and we were concerned at seeing four of 
the big, black birds sitting on the back of one of the little animals. 
Besides the nest found at 9,500 feet in Costilla Canyon, others were 
found in the willows at 9,400 feet, where, much to our pleasure, the 
birds came familiarly about camp, attracted by fresh meat. The 
cultivated valley bottom was well occupied by the useful scavengers, 
and they abounded in the Mexican towns of Costilla and Pinal, espe¬ 
cially in the corrals and sheds, sometimes walking about familiarly with 
the chickens. In the San Juan Mountains a flock was seen about 
three weeks later near a sheep camp, part of the noisy band flying 
down toward the San Antonio River, apparently for a morning drink. 
On the ridge above the Tusas River some were seen about the slopes 
where the sheep had been, and nests were found in a line of willows. 
Near the fork of the Tusas, below a ridge-back of aspens, pines, and 
spruces, a number were found on a sunny southwest slope, with a 
company of Western Crows, Brewer Blackbirds, and Pinyon Jays, 
apparently catching grasshoppers. On the crest of the range, at about 
10,000 feet, a flock was found in the trees about camp, a sheep camp 
on an opposite slope in this case explaining their presence. 
On our way through the country the Magpies were found commonly 
not only where there were sheep and goats but also in Indian and adobe 
villages, perhaps performing valuable services as scavengers while 
adding a feature of interest to the picturesque native life, a feature 
well calculated to stamp itself on the memoiy of the wayfarer. On the 
Jicarilla Apache Reservation their nests were seen at several of our 
camps. In Santa Clara Canyon at about 9,000 feet, near the divide, 
a flock of thirty or forty of the handsome black and white birds flew up 
before us from a blooming yellow Senecio slope where, presumably, 
they had been getting a meal of grasshoppers; and in the beautiful 
open Valle Santa Rosa country, as we drove along of a morning, they 
were often seen sitting in the sun talking and half singing in a contented 
warble. 
But while the Magpie is a most interesting and enlivening comrade 
of the way to the field ornithologist, it presents many problems to the 
ranchman and the student of economic ornithology. “As an insect 
eater,” Mr. Kalmbach tells us, “it has no superiors among its imme¬ 
diate relatives. Its consumption of destructive weevils, caterpillars, 
and grasshoppers, is a strong point in its favor.” As an enemy of 
small mammals it destroys a certain number of noxious rodents. On 
the other hand, he adds, impartially, it “has some outstanding faults.” 
Eggs and young birds are destroyed, and domestic fowls and their 
eggs are sure to suffer from it in areas “where it is abundant and 
poultry is not securely housed.” As a carrion feeder it deserves some 
credit, but closely allied to its liking for carrion is its propensity for 
