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Self-Devouring Magpie

The Self-Devouring Magpie is not a bird, as its name implies, but is indeed a pie. It has an incredibly short shelf-life, about three-and-a-half seconds (on average), due to the pie spontaneously consuming itself the moment it is out of the oven, until it has disappeared completely. It is rumored that the pie is so delicious it simply has to have a taste of itself, although the fabled Casserole of Calamitous Augury is generally thought to be the most delicious dish ever created, and that has never been self-devouring. Some discussions around fandom have questioned whether or not the pie contains some kind of magical intelligence that realizes it is yummy.

High Culimancer Bertrick mentions it in The Rubion Sword (book 3), saying that he "would love to find a way of preserving the Self-Devouring Magpie for just long enough to take a bite."

Certain Elemenstors, and indeed many Culimancers, have theorized that the pie doesn't really cease to exist when it devours itself, but rather appears in another plane, in the same way that The Devouring Orb of Pakus sends all devoured items into the Hollow Nothing. While no one is really certain if the Self-Devouring Magpie ever appears in the Hollow Nothing, or would do so consistently even if did, one might surmise that the moment the pie appears in another plane, it continues to eat itself and then goes to yet another plane, so that it can never be pinned down except through being in the Right Place at the Right Time.

Today, no one knows how to bake a proper Self-Devouring Magpie. The chef holding the last known copy of the recipe tried to protect his valuable trade secret by baking it into the pie, which then, as predicted, ate itself away.

Magpies have been occasionally seen on-screen in the cartoon series "The Wizbits", but those have all been of the non-devouring variety.

There have been reports of so-called undevouring magpies which appear a bite at a time and then once completely present proceed to disappear at approximately the same rate. This does tend to lend credence to the theory that magpies are on a continuous dimensional journey of constant self devouring.