72 PACKERS' PESTS. 



eyes out of a living animal when, wounded and 

 helpless, it lay down to die; and pounce on 

 maimed birds, break in their skulls, and delibe- 

 rately devour their brains whilst the muscles still 

 quivered with life. 



To the packer the magpies are dire enemies. 

 If a pack-mule or horse has a gall, and hap- 

 pens to be turned out to graze with the wound 

 uncovered, down come the magpies on its back; 

 clinging with their sharp claws, reckless of 

 every effort to displace them, they peck away 

 at the wound ; the tortured beast rolls madly, 

 and for a short time the scoundrels are obliged 

 to let go, but only to swoop down again the 

 instant a chance offers. This repeated agony 

 soon kills an animal, unless the packers rescue it. 



We had frightful trouble with magpies at our 

 winter mule-camp, near Colville. They gradu- 

 ally accumulated, to eat the offal and what there 

 was besides, until they were in hundreds, and be- 

 came perfectly unbearable. Shooting at them was 

 only wasting valuable ammunition. The packers 

 were driven almost into a state of revolt. We 

 had an old maimed suffering mule which was to 

 be killed, so the packers gave it a ball containing 

 a large dose of strychnine : death was imme- 

 diate, and the carcase, ere ten minutes had 



