The other pied, long-tailed outsider
Lengthy tail feathers by no means guarantee our good regard. Its tail may account for half its overall length, but, after the pigeon, the magpie () is our most vilified bird, according to the RSPB. Its character is widely reputed to be challenging and arrogant and its predation of songbird nests is denounced as one of the natural world's most regrettable elements. Christian folklore attributed the magpie's black-and-white plumage to its failure to join other wholly black corvids in mourning the crucifixion and superstition endowed the number of birds seen at any one time as an omen-folk still chant the verses today. Worse, it suffers the traditional reputation of a thief, an idea enshrined by Gioachino Rossini in the tragedy , the uncomfortably true story of a servant girl executed for stealing a silver spoon, later found in a magpie's nest.
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