Vagrant Black-Billed Magpie in Ventura County, California
Vagrant Black-Billed Magpie in Ventura Cmnty, California.-On April 10, 1946, I saw a Black-billed Magpie (Pica pica) eight miles north and three miles west of Piru, Ventura County, California, at an elevation of 4.500 feet. The magpie and several ravens were feeding on the month-old carcass of a horse. Two days later the magpie was photographed by Ed N. Harrison of Encinitas, California, as it pecked at the maggot-infested axilla of the carcass. Although vagrancy is common in the Black-billed Magpie, this bird was more than 100 miles south-southwest of the closest pub’- lished locality of record (Grinnell and Miller, Pac. Coast Avif. No. 27, 1944:292). One would not expect an escaped bird to be found in a dry mountainous area of chaparral and rock several miles from the nearest ranch.-CARL B. KOFORD, University of California, Berkeley, California, June 6,1949.
