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 occasion. 
The Magpie is indisputably a wretch, 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 stirred with 
righteous indignation and impelled to punitive slaughter, you fall to wonder- 
ing if your commission as avenger is properly countersigned, and—shirk the 
task outright. 
The cattle men have it in for 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 branding, we shall probably hear no 
more of it. 
Beyond this it is indisputably true that Magpies are professional nest 
robbers. At times they organize systematic searching parties, and advance 
Taken in Yakima County. NEST OF MAGPIE IN GREASEWOOD. Photo by the Author. 
