Magpie

[Traditionalist]

Magpie ( Pica pica 18"  Tail 9") 



Magpie Herl



Refers to strands of herl taken from the tail of a Magpie. A reasonable substitute for Magpie herl is cock pheasant centre tail fibre dyed dark green/ black .This may also be done with a waterproof marker. The term dubbing in reference to this material, means that a few turns of the herl are placed on the body as a rib. The pheasant herl is not as robust as the Magpie. Unfortunately, my cat got the last Magpie tail I had and I never bothered replacing it. I never used it much anyway. Merely for some historical spiders.

The magpie tail herl which is black with a brilliant iridescent metallic green sheen, was used a lot as a head, or as ribbing ( dubbing!) on many old spiders. Not many other feathers from  this bird are used, although the wings and body provide a lot of very good black and iridescent blue hackles. The tail is black/iridescent green but the body and wings are black /iridescent blue!