THE PERCHING BIRDS. 121 



of Pennsylvania"), one of these varieties is a summer 

 resident about Lake Erie. 



We have two species of Magpie in this country, 

 but none of the more Eastern form ever venture 

 along our Atlantic coast. 



J. K. Lord, in his delightful volumes on British 

 Columbia, has the following gruesome account of 

 magpies : 



" These thievish murderers are everywhere from Vancouver Island 

 to the Rocky Mountains. ... I call them murderers, because I 

 have seen them kill mules; and, worse than that, pick the eyes out 

 of a living animal when, wounded and helpless, it lay down to die ; 

 and pounce upon maimed birds, break in their skulls, and deliberately 

 devour their brains whilst the muscles still quivered with life." 



This picture is so bad that the regions where mag- 

 pies are not can cojisider themselves fortunate. 



Of Jays we have nine species, and of course many 

 local varieties. They appear from the accounts of 

 various writers to be very much alike, and the jay 

 nature no more than magpie depravity is to be com- 

 mended. Dr. Coues, in his delightful volume enti- 

 tled " Birds of the Northwest," has shown how wide- 

 spread is our antipathy to the Cat-bird ; my own 

 experience leads me to think this ill feeling is more 

 generally shown against the Blue Jay, the one spe- 

 cies common to the Middle States. Of course the 

 bird has some good traits, and I am always glad 

 to hear his hearty call through the autumn woods ; 

 and the occasional sweet flute-like note he utters is 

 one of the richest of our bird notes, a whole bird 

 concert squeezed into a single note that comes roll- 

 ing down the narrow pathway through the woods. 



