30 THE AMERICAN MAGPIE. 



Ospre\'s nest, ami had reasun to beliexe that the thrift\- pies made efficient, 

 if unwelcome, janitors. 



Ytntng Magpies are unsightly when hatched, — "worse than naked,'" and 

 repulsive to a degree equaled (Hily by young" Cormorants. Hideous as they 

 unquestionahh- are, the devoted parents declare them angels, and are ready 

 to back their (jpinions with UKjst raucous vociferations. With the possible 

 exception of Herons, who are plebes an\how, Mag"])ies are the most abusive 

 and profane of birds. When a nest of young birds is threatened, they not 

 onlv e.xpress such reasonable anxiet)- as any parent might feel, Init they 

 denounce, upbraid, anathematize, and xilif)- the intruder, and decr\' his lineage 

 from Adam down. They show the ingenuit_\- of Orientals in inventing oppro- 

 brious epithets, and when these run dry, they fall to tearing at the leaves, the 

 twigs, the branches, or even light on the ground and rip up the soil with 

 their beaks, in the mad extremity of their rage. 



.\ ])air with whom I experimented near Wallula rather fell intij the humor 

 of the thing. The Magpie is ever a wag, and these must have known that 

 repeateil visits could mean no' harm. Nevertheless, as often as I rattled the 

 nest from my fa\-orite perch on the willow tree, the old pies opened fresh vials 

 of wrath and emptied their contents upon my devoted head, \\nien mere 

 utterance became inadequate, the male bird fell tO' hewing at the end of a 

 broken branch in most elocpient indignation. He wiire this down four inches 

 in the course of my three visits. Once, when my attention was diverted, he 

 took a sly crack at my outstretched fingers, which were hastily withdrawn : 

 and, believe me, we both laughed. 



The Black-billed Magpie winters practically thruoiu its breeding range, 

 but it also indulges in irregular migratorv movements, which in \Vashington 

 take the form of e.xcursions to the coast. While never common on Puget 

 Sound, they are not unlikely to occur anywhere here in the fall of the year, 

 and are almost certain to be found somewhere about the southern prairies. 

 They return early in, spring by way of the major passes, and are not again 

 seen within the heavily timbered areas during the breeding season. Mr. D. 

 E. Brown, then of Glacier, on the north fork of the Nooksack River, records 

 under date of March 4, 1905, the a]ipearance of several bands of Magpies 

 passing eastward at a considerable height, i)erhaps something between three 

 and five thousand feet. He says they were unrecognizable until glasses were 

 trained on them, and be thinks he must have seen at least tift)- birds, with 

 chances for man\- nvn'e to have passed unobserved. 



East or west the Magpie becomes a pensioner of the sfaugbter house in 

 winter, and bis fondness for meat has often proved his undoing in the cattle 

 country. As a scavenger his services are not inconsideralile. The onh- 

 trouble is, as has been said, that he sometimes kills his own meat. 



Volumes could be written of the Magpie as a pet. He is a brainy chap 



