MAGPIE. 
133 
It is liiglily probable that those vast plains or prairies, abounding 
"with game and cattle, frequently killed for the mere hides, tallow, or 
even marrow-bones, may be one great inducement for the residency of 
these birds, so fond of flesh and carrion. Even the rigorous severity of 
winter in the high regions along the head waters of llio du Nord, the 
Arkansas and Red river, seems insufficient to force them from those 
favorite haunts ; though it appears to increase their natural voracity to 
a very uncommon degree. Pike relates, that, in the month of Decem- 
ber, in the neighborhood of the North Mountain, N. lat. 41°, W. long. 
34°, Reaumur's thermometer standing at 17° below 0, these birds were 
seen in great numbers. " Our horses," says he, "were obliged to scrape 
the snow away to obtain their miserable pittance ; and to increase their 
misfortunes, the poor animals were attacked by the Magpies, who, at- 
tracted by the scent of their sore backs, alighted on them, and in defi- 
ance of their wincing and kicking, picked many places quite raw. The 
difficulty of procuring food rendering those birds so bold as to light on 
our men's arms, and eat meat out of their hands."* 
The Magpie is eighteen inches in length ; the head, neck, upper part 
of the breast and back, are a deep velvety black ; primaries brownish 
black, streaked along their inner vanes with white ; secondaries rich 
purplish blue ; greater coverts green blue ; scapulars, lower part of the 
breast and belly, white ; thighs and vent black ; tail long, the two exte- 
rior feathers scarcely half the length of the longest, the others increas- 
ing to the two middle ones, which taper towards their extremities. The 
color of this part of the plumage is very splendid, being glossy green, 
dashed with blue and bright purple ; this last color bounds the green ; 
nostrils covered with a thick tuft of recumbent hairs, as are also the 
sides of the mouth ; bill, legs and feet, glossy black. The female dif- 
fers only in the less brilliancy of her plumage.,. 
* Pike's Journal, p. 170. 
