This is a Yellow-billed Magpie.
Where did that name come from?
Pied means black and white in English. It came from a French word “Pied” or…black and white. (Over time it has come to mean patches of other colors too.)
Now that’s settled.
Mag’s beginnings are fuzzier. Some say it may be short for Margote. Which in turn is short for Margaret. And apparently one of them was a chatterer.
Others site Shakespeare. He used it in Macbeth as “maggot-pie.”
By maggot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.
I think I have to go with the Bard on this one.
In any case the word is now “magpie:” Thankfully.
It’s not a beautiful name. But you have to admit.
It rolls off the tongue easier than “Yellow-billed-Maggot-parti-colored-chatterer.”
