I drew this cartoon as a gift to a friend of mine who retired and moved with his wife down river.  He related a story to me that really got me:   Now, he and his wife loved wildlife and especially songbirds.  He had quite a few nesting songbirds on his property and down by the river.  Magpies were not his favorites - not even on the list.  He considered them to be the street punks of the bird world.  They raised havoc with the songbirds tearing up their nests and eating their eggs.  One day he was visiting with a neighbor at his door when he spied a Magpie on a limb near his house.  He reached inside the door and grabbed his pistol.  Just then the Magpie flew and like a "B" movie gunfighter, he raised the pistol and fired just that quick.  The marauder was blown from the sky.  His neighbor's jaw dropped to the deck.  "By damn, that's the best shot I ever seen!" My friend never bothered to tell him he was loaded with birdshot with a wide pattern - he could hardly miss. 

Now, I don't advocate blasting birds from the sky for sport.  I sort of like Magpies despite their lifestyle.  But I thought it was a funny story and just had to have a little fun with it.  He did not cause a shortage of Magpies but we are definitely suffering from a decline of our songbirds.