THE ORIGIN OF MAGPIES 



ON the authority of Ovid, magpies were the discon- 

 tented, tale-bearing daughters of Pierus, who were 

 changed into birds for their garrulity. When the 

 curse fell upon them, endeavoring to speak and, with great 

 clamor, to menace with their insolent hands, they beheld quills 

 growing out of their nails, dusky feathers springing from 

 their arms, and each saw the face of the other shooting out 

 into a hard beak, as these new birds were added to the wood. 

 When in their alarm they frantically beat their breasts they 

 were elevated by the motion and hvmg poised in the air as 

 magpies, the scandal of the groves. And even though their 

 forms were changed, their talkativeness remained, and their 

 garrulity and enormous love of chattering. 



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