HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



341 



Europe, as to be proscribed by law, and destroyed for 

 the premium justly set upon their heads. The ab 

 sence of food and shelter for their nests in summer, 

 suitable for the Magpie, on the vast prairies of the 

 Arkansas andlVlissouri, particularly in the dry deserts 

 at the base of the Rocky Mountains, will probably 

 continue as a perpetual barrier to the eastern migra 

 tions of this mischievous species, whose means of 

 flight and travelling are still more circumscribed than 

 those of the common crow. They consequently ex 

 perience annually, in the terrible vicissitudes of cli 

 mate incident to the countries they inhabit; like the 

 Esquimaux of the Arctic regions, either a feast or a 

 famine, and are rendered so bold and voracious by 

 want, that in the vicinity of the northern Andes, 

 towards New Mexico, Colonel Pike was visited by 

 them in the month of December, in latitude 41, 

 while the thermometer was at the dreadful line of IV 

 below zero, on the scale of Reaumur. They now 

 assembled round the miserable party in great numbers 

 for the purpose of picking the sore backs of their 

 perishing horses, and, like the vulture of Prometheus, 

 they did not await the death of the subjects they tor 

 mented, but fed upon them still living, till their flesh 

 was raw and bleeding. They were so bold and 

 familiar as to alight on the men's arms, and eat flesh 

 out of their hands.* 



To the party of Lewis and Clark, the Magpies 

 were also very familiar and voracious, so that they 

 penetrated into their tents, and without ceremony, 

 like the harpies of Virgil, snatched the meat even 

 from the dishes, preferring the chance of any death 



* Pike's Journal, p. 170. 



29* 



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