222 OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 



tinues briskly moving his tail in different directions ; he is 

 also very mischievous, and given to mocking and imitat- 

 ing all he sees and hears. His common prate is like 

 that of the Crow, but, besides his imitations of speech, he 

 will sometimes counterfeit the lowino; of the calf, the 

 bleating of the goat, the sheep, and even the flagelet of 

 the shepherd. One has been heard to imitate the flour- 

 ish of a trumpet ; and Willughby saw several that could 

 pronounce whole phrases. 



Like the Crow, the Pie has the habit of stealing and 

 hiding provisions or pieces of money, which it per- 

 forms with so much art, that they are often difficult to be 

 found. It is pretended by hunters, that the Pie has a 

 knowledge of arithmetic up to 5, so that when from 2 to 

 that number of men entered a hut near the nest, it would 

 not venture into it, while 2, 3, or 4 of the 5 came out, and 

 only lost count when the experiment was made with 6. 



Cunning and precaution indeed prevail in all the ac- 

 tions of the Pie, and are in nothing more evident than in 

 the construction of his nest, which is situated either in a 

 large tree, or a high and close bush on the edge of the 

 forest or the orchard, and often in the tall hedge-row near 

 the cottage. They both unite in the necessary labor, and 

 begin by fortifying it externally with flexible twigs, fil- 

 ling in towards the bottom pieces of turf and clay ; it is 

 then wholly covered with a canopy or defence formed 

 with small thorny branches, well interlaced together, and 

 leaving an entrance only in the best defended and least 

 accessible side. Internally the nest is covered with a 

 thick layer of well-wrought clay ; this is then lined with a 

 mass of pliable root fibres neatly interlaced together, which 

 is in reality the true nest or bed for the tender young, 

 and is only about 6 inches in diameter, while the whole of 

 the defensive outworks give a diameter of at least 2 feet 



