In my experience of them, magpies are about the single most vindictive and destructive little things around. A pair of them will go down a hedgerow and eat / kill / smash up almost every living thing in their path, except perhaps for the hedge itself. I've never heard of saluting them, I'm not really the kind of person who would shoot any animal (although there are some humans who have really asked for it in the past) so all I can say is 'save the cute little birdies, bring back the gyr falcon!'