30 THE AMERICAN MAGPIE. 
Osprey’s nest, and had reason to believe that the thrifty pies made efficient, 
if unwelcome, janitors. 
Young Magpies are unsightly when hatched,—‘‘worse than naked,” and 
repulsive to a degree equaled only by young Cormorants. Hideous as they 
unquestionably are, the devoted parents declare them angels, and are ready 
to back their opinions with most raucous vociferations. With the possible 
exception of Herons, who are plebes anyhow, Magpies are the most abusive 
and profane of birds. When a nest of young birds is threatened, they not 
only express such reasonable anxiety as any parent might feel, but they 
denounce, upbraid, anathematize, and vilify the intruder, and decry his lineage 
from Adam down. ‘They show the ingenuity 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. 
A pair with whom I experimented near Wallula rather fell into the humor 
of the thing. The Magpie is ever a wag, and these must have known that 
repeated visits could mean no harm. Nevertheless, as often as I rattled the 
nest from my favorite perch on the willow tree, the old pies opened fresh vials 
of wrath and emptied their contents upon my devoted head. When mere 
utterance became inadequate, the male bird fell to hewing at the end of a 
broken branch in most eloquent indignation. He wore 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took a sly crack at my outstretched fingers, which were hastily withdrawn ; 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 thruout its breeding range, 
but it also indulges in irregular migratory movements, which in Washington 
take the form of excursions 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 appearance of several bands of Magpies 
passing eastward at a considerable height, perhaps something between three 
and five thousand feet. He says they were unrecognizable until glasses were 
trained on them, and he thinks he must have seen at least fifty birds, with 
chances for many more to have passed unobserved. 
East or west the Magpie becomes a pensioner of the slaughter house in 
winter, and his fondness for meat has often proved his undoing in the cattle 
country. As a scavenger his services are not inconsiderable. The only 
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 
