MAGPIE. 
77 
quarter, where premiums, 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 domesticated, he is easily 
taught to imitate the human voice, and to articulate ivords 
pretty distinctly ; has all the pilfering habits of his tribe, Ailing 
every chink, nook, and crevice, with whatever he can carry 
off; is subject to the epilepsy, or some similar disorder; 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 barricaded 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 commence- 
ment 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, how- 
ever, to be rather rare in that quarter. These circumstances 
are taken notice of by Mr Pennant and other British natu- 
ralists. 
In 1804, an exploring party under the command of Captains 
Lewis and Clark, on their route to the Pacific Ocean across 
the continent, first met with the Magpie somewhere near the 
great bend of the Missouri, and found that the number of these 
