Winter Falcon Magpie Crow

Winter Falcon This is a dexterous frog catcher; who, that he may pursue his profession with full effect, takes up his winter residence almost entirely among our meadows and marshes. He sometimes stuffs himself to enormously with these reptiles, that the prominency of his craw makes a large bunch, and he appears to fly with difficulty. I have taken the broken fragments and whole carcasses of ten frogs, of different dimensions, from the crop of a single individual. Magpie 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 birds increased as they advanced. Her also the blue jay disappeared; as if the territorial boundaries and jurisdiction of these tow noisy and voracious families of the same tribe had been mutually agreed on, and distinctly settled. But the magpie was found to be far more daring than the jay, dashing into their very tents, and carrying off the meat from the dishes. One of the hunters who accompanied the expedition informed me, that they frequently attended him while he was engaged in skinning and cleaning the carcass of the deer, bear, or buffalo he had killed, often seizing the meat that hung within a foot or two of his head. Crow This is perhaps the most generally known, and least beloved, of all our land birds; having neither melody of song, nor beauty of plumage, nor excellence of flesh, nor civility of manners, to recommend him; on the contrary, he is branded as a thief and a plunderer--a kind of black-coated vagabond, who hovers over the fields of the industrious, fattening on their labours, and, by his voracity, often blasting their expectations.