too 
TIIE COMMON* MAGPIE. 
“ were obliged to scrape the snow away to obtain their miserable pittance ; 
and, to increase their misfortune, the poor animals were attacked by the 
Magpies, who, attracted by the scent of their sore backs, alighted on them, 
and, in defiance of their wincing and kicking, picked many places quite 
raw ; the difficulty of procuring food rendering those birds so bold as to 
alight on our men’s arms, and eat meat out of their hands.” To Clarke 
and Lewis, however, is due the first introduction of this bird into the 
Fauna of the United States. These intrepid travellers first observed the 
Magpie near the great bend of the Missouri, although it was known to have 
been obtained at the fur -trading factories of the Hudson’s Bay Company. 
There is a difference of opinion as to the identity of the Magpie of 
America and that of Europe. Thomas Nuttall, who has seen those of 
both countries, as well as their nests, and observed their habits, assures me, 
that he looks upon them as clearly of the same species. Captain Sabine 
thought differently, and Charles Bonaparte, after remarking in his 
“Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson,” that “it is not a little 
singular that this species, which is so common in every part of Europe, 
should be confined in its range on this continent to the western and northern 
regions,” thus plainly indicating his belief of their identity, names it, in a 
list of European and North American Birds, published in London in April, 
1838, “ Pica Iludsonica. Nob.” the European bird being at the same time 
ticketed “ Pica melanoleuca.” Mr. Swainson, in the Fauna Boreali- 
Americana, remarks on comparing them : — “ We cannot perceive the 
slightest difference whereon to build even the character of a variety, much 
less a species and this truly is my own opinion. 
The following notice regarding our bird was given me by my friend 
Thomas Nuttall : — “ On the loth of July, arriving at the borders of the 
Shoshonee, or Snake river, we first met with the Common Magpie on our 
route, mostly accompanied by the Raven, but there were no Crows. The 
young birds were so familiar and greedy, approaching the encampment in 
quest of food, as to be easily taken by the Indian boys, when they soon 
become reconciled to savage domesticity. The old birds were sufficiently 
shy, but the young were observed hopping and croaking around us, and 
tugging at any offal of flesh meat thrown out, like so many Vultures. 
Differing so far from the proscribed and persecuted Magpies of Europe, 
these, at least the young, seemed evidently to court the advantages of society 
in supplying them with food, and betrayed scarcely any alarm on our 
approach. If chased off for tin instant, they returned the next, and their 
monotonous and gluttonous croak was heard around us at all hours of the 
day. The dryness of the season, and the scarcity of insects and small birds, 
urged them no doubt to this unusual familiarity with their doubtful friend 
