Jan., 1922 MAGPIES VERSUS LIVESTOCK 15 
those showing particularly bad shearing cuts. As soon as this was discovered 
the birds were driven away and I believe a few of them shot as a warning, but 
they soon returned to the attack, and before the seriousness of the situation 
was realized they had opened up ugly wounds on quite a number of the sheep, 
from which they would pick and tear the flesh whenever the least chance was 
allowed them. The sheep seem utterly helpless in such circumstances, merely 
lying or standing pitifully while their tormentors, alighting on their backs and 
clinging there, give the wounds no chance to heal. Blow-flies soon add their 
quota to the troubles of the poor quadrupeds and a wound of this sort cannot 
long go unattended before it becomes a writhing mass of maggots. What 
made matters worse during the year in question was that soon the magpies, or 
some of them, began, by dint of their own efforts, to open up entirely new 
wounds on the sheep. For some reason the kidneys are particularly favored 
tidbits, and the birds were quick to learn the location of these organs in the 
animal’s body and the ease with which they could penetrate to them by drili- 
Fig. 11. A ROMNELLET RAM VICTIMIZED BY MAGPIES, SHOWING TYPICAL LE- 
SION IN RENAL REGION IN PROCESS OF HEALING. PHOTOGRAPH BY THE 
AUTHOR AT WINNECOOK, MONTANA, AUGUST 28, 1921. 
ing a shallow hole just at the side of the spine in the lumbar region. Through 
this they would peck away piecemeal, first the overlying tissues, then the 
toothsome fatty layer, and then work into the kidney itself. The wretched 
sheep would become weaker and weaker, soon sink by the wayside, and in the 
absence of prompt human intervention the end was not long delayed. In fact if 
the magpies had gained very much headway before being discovered, even hum- 
an help was of small avail. As mentioned by Schorger the Kea of New Zealand 
has long been known to prey at times upon living sheep. It is of interest to 
note that it, too, has been reported to have a particular predilection for the re- 
gion of the kidneys, where its appetite is said to be for the fat surrounding 
these organs. So far as I could ascertain the magpies were not content with the 
fatty layer, but ate the true glandular tissue as well. Newton states in the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th Edit.) that ‘‘The amount of injury the kea 
inflicts on flockmasters has doubtless been much exaggerated, for Dr. Menzies 
states that on one ‘run’, where the loss was unusually large, the proportion 
