TIlE CONDOR I VoL. VIII I descended into the creek bottoms among the willows, where I found my first magpie nests. These birds were seen about every sheep-herder's camp, subsisting on carrion. After scanning the sides of a distant range thru my field glasses, I as- cended the hills in that direction. As my pony was prancing about, a curlew arose ten feet away, and swiftly winged her course low over the prairie, half a mile in absolute silence. I sprang from my saddle and found a handsome fresh set rest- ing with their points together in a slight cavity lined with bits of grass. In the meantime the parent approached from the opposite direction, uttering her distress- ing notes of alarm. These eggs are of the dark green type, shaped long and narrow, and quite different from other specimens of "the sicklebill" which I possess. An hour or two later while riding thru the sage brush, I espied a sage hen squatting under a bush in typical woodcock fashion, trusting by her protective coloration to escape attention. She permitted close inspection before leaving her nest, revealing nine eggs, incubation one-half. Five miles away several cottonwoods were growing between rocky ledges. As I neared the place a beautiful fawn-colored hawk sailed from a huge nest composed of dead limbs and buffalo chips. An easy climb--and I was looking down on three well-blotched eggs of the ferruginous rough-leg. It was getting late in the afternoon so I started for the ranch. In a deep gulch between two divides were several tall poplars; two contained nests. On one the head and tail of a Swainson hawk were clearly visible, outlined against the blue sky. The nest held one freshly laid egg, which I left undisturbed. Camp was reached, in time for supper, and tho a trifle saddle-sore, I felt amply rewarded for my first day's work up the Yellowstone. Chicagro, Illinms. The Bell Sparrow BY WRIGHT M. PIERCE HIS little sparrow (,4mfihisfiiza belli) is very numerous about here, frequenting the brush-covered fields and low foothills. He seems to prefer the lo.w brush, especially that which grows from one to three feet high, tho he is found, but less abundantly, in the higher sage and thicker brush. Thi? sparrow is a resident about here and can be found at any tinhe in his chosen haunts either on a rainy day in January or on a hot sultry one in July. I have found man.y nests of this bird and do not consider them difficult to lo- cate. The method I use is to walk along in the low brush until the bird is startled from the nest, or to simply look in,bunches of low brush near which I have lo- cated a pair of the birds. In this way I have found as many as half a dozen different nests in an afternoon. The breeding season commences in early April and continues certainly as late as June. It is at its height during the last week of April and in early May. My earliest set was taken on April 6, near Claremont, and contained four eggs, slightly incubated. On May 18, also near Claremont, I found a set of four, incm bation advanced. The nest is generally placed about a foot up in some small bush, usually being
