What's a "pica"?

[ChrisGreaves]

And the coneys and the picas play

You Tube Video

[HansV]

A jay or magpie:

pi·ca /ˈpaɪkə/
[pahy-kuh]

–noun Pathology
an abnormal appetite or craving for substances that are not fit to eat, as chalk or clay, common in malnutrition, pregnancy, etc.

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Origin:
1555–65; < Neo-Latin, special use of Latin pīca jay, magpie, with reference to its omnivorous feeding

(Random House Dictionary)

[Skitterbug]

A jay or magpie:

pi·ca /ˈpaɪkə/
[pahy-kuh]

–noun Pathology
an abnormal appetite or craving for substancesthat are not fit to eat, as chalkor clay, common in malnutrition, pregnancy, etc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1555–65; < Neo-Latin, special use of Latin pīca jay, magpie, with reference to its omnivorous feeding

(Random House Dictionary)

Thankfully, I didn't crave chalk or clay while I was pregnant! :ug: I can't imagine anyone becoming that desperate but then I am basing that thought on my own little "world view". This article suggests that it happens and may actually be good to do. I learn something interesting every day!

[ChrisGreaves]

A jay or magpie:

Thanks Hans.
My 1,700-page Canadian Oxford gives the craving, but not the bird.
Odd that. My other dictionaries, much smaller, but older, make no definition of Pica as a bird.

[ChrisGreaves]

Thankfully, I didn't crave chalk or clay ...

I'm feeling a craving for curried magpie coming over me ...

[John Gray]

And the coneys and the picas play

Surely:
"Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play..."

part of the State Song of Kansas (as any fule kno).

[HansV]

Shouldn't that be

"Home, home on the range
Where the eggs and rashers fry"

[ChrisGreaves]

Shouldn't that be
"Home, home on the range
Where the eggs and rashers fry"

You have a point there, Hans.

Or at the very least, a pica.

[HansV]

Probably a pica egg...

[Leif]

Probably a pica egg...

As in "Peter Piper Picked a Pica Pickled Eggs" ?