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 
