186 
MAGPIE. 
miums, it is said, are offered for his head, as an arch poacher; 
and penalties inflicted on all those who permit him to breed on 
their premises. Under the lash of such rigorous persecution, a 
few years will probably exterminate the whole tribe from the 
island. He is also destructive to gardens and orchards; is noisy 
and restless, almost constantly flying from place to place; alights 
on the backs of the cattle, to rid them of the larvae that fester 
in the skin; is content with carrion when nothing better offers; 
eats various kinds of vegetables, and devours greedily grain, 
worms, and insects of almost every description. When domes- 
ticated, he is easily taught to imitate the human voice, and to 
articulate words pretty distinctly; has all the pilfering habits of 
his tribe, filling every chink, nook and crevice, with whatever 
he can carry off; is subject to the epilepsy, or some similar dis- 
order; and is, on the whole, a crafty, restless, and noisy bird. 
He generally selects a tall tree adjoining the farm-house, for 
his nest, which is placed among the highest branches; this is 
large, composed outwardly of sticks, roots, turf and dry weeds, 
and well lined with wool, cow hair and feathers; the whole is 
surrounded, roofed and barricadoed, with thorns, leaving only 
a narrow entrance. The eggs are usually five, of a greenish 
colour, marked with numerous black or dusky spots. In the 
northern parts of Europe, he migrates at the commencement of 
winter. 
In this country the Magpie was first taken notice of at the 
factories or trading houses, on Hudson’s Bay, where the Indians 
used sometimes to bring it in, and gave it the name of Heart- 
bird, for what reason is uncertain. It appears, however, to be 
rather rare in that quarter. These circumstances are taken notice 
of by Mr. Pennant and other British naturalists. 
In 1804, the exploring party under the command of Lewis 
and Clark, on their route to the Pacific ocean across the conti- 
nent, first met with the Magpie somewhere near the great bend 
of the Missouri, and found that the number of these birds in- 
creased as they advanced. Here also the Blue Jay disappeared; 
as if the territorial boundaries and jurisdiction of these two noisy 
