We compare the rheological behavior in a shear flow of two types of suspension of magnetic particles in the presence of a magnetic field. The first suspension is made of silica particles in a ferrofluid and the second one is made of carbonyl iron particles in silicone oil. The permeability curves of these two suspensions have been measured for different volume fractions as a function of the magnetic field in order to characterize the magnetic interactions. We show for both cases the existence of two different yield stresses: one associated with the solid friction of the particles on the plates of the rheometer and the second one with the rupture of the aggregates. This second yield stress presents a maximum with the volume fraction for the suspension of magnetic holes but grows faster than linearly with the volume fraction for the suspension of carbonyl iron. These features are explained by theoretical models based, respectively, on the deformation of aggregates of macroscopic size and on ruptures between particles at the particle scale. When plotted as a function of the Mason number, the curves for different fields well collapse on the same one but the slope of this master curve on a log-log plot is quite different from the one of the Bingham law, especially for the suspension of magnetic holes. For both suspensions the exponent depends on the volume fraction. (C) 2000 The Society of Rheology. [S0148-6055(00)00501-0].