24 



THE AMERICAN MAGPIE. 



bounds of legitimate naughtiness, and we take him on the parental knee 

 for well-deserved correction. But the saucy culprit manages to steal a roguish 

 glance at us. — a glance which challenges the remembrance of our own 

 boyish pranks, and bids us ask what difference it will make twenty years 

 after; and it is all off with discipline for that (iccasinn. 



The Magpie is indisputably a wTetch, a miscreant, a cunning thief, a 

 heartless marauder, a brigand bold — Oh, call him what you will ! But, 

 withal, he is such a picturesque villain, that as often as you are stirretl with 

 righteous indignation and impelled to punitixe slaughter, you fall to wonder- 

 ing if your commission as a\'enger is pri)perlv countersigned, and — shirk the 

 task outright. 



The cattle men have it in fur him. because the persecutions of the Magpie 

 sometimes prevent scars made by the branding iron from healing; and cases 

 are known in which young stock has died because of malignant sores resulting. 

 This is, of course, a grave misdemeanor ; but when the use of fences shall have 

 fully displaced the present custom of Itranding, we shall probably hear no 

 more of it. 



Beyond this it is indisputably true that Magpies are professional nest 

 robbers. At times thev organize svstematic searching parties, and advance 



r.i/.L-ji III )\il.iiiia Li'iiiity. XEST OF MAGPIK IX GKJvASJ'.W l>i >l) 



Fliul'i bv tiic Amu 



