VICIOUS MAGPIE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19132, 15 October 1927, Page 13

VICIOUS MAGPIE.

ATTACKS ON PEOPLE. A CANBERRA NUISANCE. (TBOIC OT7B OWY COBRESPOHDMtT.) SYDNEY, October 6.: . Australia's, new capital, Canberra, has its drawbacks as a place of residence, including its isolation, its rawness, and its ordinance forbidding the sale of liquor, and the latest addition td its list is a vicious magpie, which has made attacks on a number of people who have crossed a reserve where it is supposed to have its nest. Magpies are a menace in nesting time, and people have reason to fear the bold birds that resent intrusionnear the trees in which their- nests are built. The male magpie, ever watchful, 'swoops on any approaching person—a possible enemy. They r troop just as fearlessly at a burly man as at a helpless child. In such a category must be placed Canberra's specimen.' Many Victims. Children have been mostly this magpie's victims, and various officials of the Federal Capital Commission have also suffered. A few days ago the secretary of the Federal Cabinet (Mr Campbell) went about his duties with an ear in plaster, and Mr Strachan, an ofacial of the Treasury, was attacked. A journalist was another of the vicious magpie's victims, the hat he was wearing being perforated by the bird's beak. But the magpie signed its death warrant when it had the temerity to attack a Member of Parliametn. Being no respecter of persons, it did not hesitate to swoop down on Mr Fenton, a Victorian Labour Member, as he walked across the reserve hatless, and . the bird inflicted a nasty wound on his bare head. He arrived at his hotel with his handkerchief stained with blood, and he had to receive medical treatment. That was the last straw. Mr Fenton intervieweo the chief of the Federal police force, and a few constables were detailed, with live* ammunition, to hunt down the magpie and kill it.