Bathgate. — The Sparroxv Plague ayid its Remedy. 75 



young birds, even partridges and eggs." This extensive menu 

 is a little jumbled up by our author, but apparently from his 

 putting young birds last he does not deem them the most 

 important item on the bill of fare. Probably in the States 

 during their severe winter the jays may be driven in from 

 their woodland haunts to seek their food amongst men and 

 sparrows. It appears to me that it would not be desirable to 

 bring the jay here, where the conditions are so different. 



The magpie {Pica candata), on the other hand, though 

 shy and wary in the British Isles, where gamekeepers wage 

 a constant war against it, would naturally frequent the 

 habitations of man. It is not persecuted in Norway, and an 

 English writer, speaking of it there, says, " The magpie is 

 one of the most abundant as well as the most attractive of 

 Norwegian birds. Noted for its shy, cunning habits here " 

 [in England], "its altered demeanour there is the more re- 

 markable. It is on the most familiar terms with the inhabit- 

 ants, picking close about the doors and soujetimes walking 

 inside their houses. It abounds in the Town of Drontheim, 

 making its nest upon the churches and warehouses. We saw 

 as many as a dozen of them at one time seated upon the 

 gravestones of the churchyard. Few farmhouses are without 

 several of them breeding under the eaves, their nests sup- 

 ported by the spout." As the magpie eats young birds, here 

 is the bird to keep the sparrows' nuujbers in check, for it 

 will live in towns and close to dwellings — just the localities 

 sparrows frequent. The magpie's appetite is omnivorous, and 

 it is cliarged with at times killing weakly lambs, and varying 

 its diet by partaking of grain and fruit ; but I never at Home 

 heard any complaints of this bird from the farmers, whilst 

 the gamekeepers had not a good word for it. The bird will 

 eat carrion, so if one were disturbed taking a meal from a 

 dead Iamb it would probably be blamed for its death, which 

 may have occurred from natural causes. Nor, I think, can 

 there be much in the charge that it partakes of grain and 

 fruit, otherwise it would not be such a favourite in Norway, 

 nor so abundant as it is in France. If, however, it did take 

 a little grain and fruit occasionally, the quantity consumed 

 by it would not approach what would have been eaten bv 

 the sparrows, greenfinches, and blackbirds which had been 

 destroyed by the magpie. If it did get too numerous, being 

 a good-sized and conspicuous bird it would not be difficult 

 for the bird-catchers to reduce its numbers. It is, in my 

 opinion, the best bird to introduce to cope with the sparrow 

 plague. 



Some one or more of the shrikes would also be desirable 

 acquisitions, and against none of them could even a suggestion 

 of evil-doing be made ; the only objection to which some of 



