uly,1917 HABITS OF THE MAGPIE IN SOUTHEASTERN' WASHINGT( >N 



123 



taken for pets, the rest being killed. The history of the nest in 1907 is not 

 known, but in 1908 it was again occupied by a pair of magpies. 



Magpies are sometimes kept as pets, and, if taken when young and kept 

 away from their own kind, readily learn to say a number of words and phrases. 

 They are more apt to be friendly with, and talk to, strangers than to members 

 of the family where they are kept. Especially the person who does the feeding 

 is likely to be discriminated against in favor of some one else less familiar to 

 the bird. A magpie will sometimes be very talkative to a person dressed in 

 ' ' Sunday ' ' clothes, who would not be noticed in ordinary ranch attire. 



Magpies have a bad reputation as thieves. In the Touchet Valley they 

 are destructive to hens' eggs and small chickens. They break the eggs with 

 their strong bills and usually devour them on the spot. They also destroy the 



Fig. 45. Young Magpies, nearly large enough to desert the nest; Pre's- 

 cott, Washington. 



eggs and young of native wild birds. On April 27, 1906, one ate two eggs from 

 the nest of a Long-eared Owl, from which the parent birds had been driven 

 away by shooting. Ripe cherries are a favorite food when they can be obtained ; 

 these are eaten at the tree, or may be carried away in the bill to be eaten in the 

 seclusion of the more dense brush. The birds feed also on the carcasses of dead 

 animals, or on any offal that may be available. 



On account of their depredations, magpies are constantly hunted. They 

 are very wary, however, and this, combined with their adaptability in the mat- 

 ter of food, their protected nests, and good-sized families, enables them to 

 thrive. In spite of an occasional one that is shot, or of a few nestsful of young 

 that are destiwed with malignant intention, they are not decreasing in abund- 

 ance in the region. 



