MAGPIE. 115 



PICA. Generic Character*. Beak strong, compressed laterally, slightly 

 arched and hooked at the tip, Nostrils basal, covered by short stiff feathers, 

 directed forwards. Wings short and rounded; first quill-feather very short, 

 the fourth or fifth the longest in the wing. Tarsus longer than the middle 

 toe. Tail long and graduated. 



THE Long-tailed Pie kind among the Crows, or Cor- 

 vidce, admitted as a section by M. Temminck, have been 

 advanced to generic distinction by Brisson, Dumeril, Cuvier, 

 and Vieillot; and in this generic separation these syste- 

 matic naturalists have been followed by most recent writers 

 on the subject. The necessity for such subdivision has 

 been long felt, and even anticipated : our Magpie is the 

 Pica caudata of Gesner and Ray ; fourteen or sixteen spe- 

 cies of the genus are now known and admitted by Wagler 

 and others, of which one only is British. 



Although no bird in our catalogue is better known than 

 the Magpie, yet accustomed only, as we are, to see it at 

 a distance in the fields, or penned up in a cage where its 

 plumage is soiled and disfigured by confinement, its sin- 

 gular beauty is almost unsuspected ; yet, with an agreeable 

 variety and arrangement in the principal colours, the black 

 and the white are as pure, as the green, the blue, and the 

 purple, with their ever-varying reflections, are brilliant. 



With a handsome exterior, the Magpie is, however, a 

 suspicious character ; and though cautious to a degree, it 

 rarely removes far from the habitations of man. Its at- 

 tachment, as observed by Montagu, " is governed by self- 

 interest ; it is a great enemy to the husbandman and the 

 preserver of game ; but has cunning enough to evade their 

 wrath. No animal food comes amiss to its carnivorous 

 appetite ; young poultry, eggs, young lambs, and even 

 weakly sheep it will attempt to destroy by first plucking 

 out their eyes ; the young of hares, rabbits, and feathered 

 game, share the same fate ; fish, carrion, insects, and fruit, 

 and, lastly, grain, when nothing else can be got. It is an 



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