MAGPIE. 223 



The eggs are 3 to 6 in number, rather long, and of a 

 whitish green, spotted with cinereous grey and olive 

 brown. Near Portsoy, in Scotland, a pair of Magpies for 

 several succeeding years built their nest, and brought up 

 their young in a gooseberry bush ; and the more secure- 

 ly to defend this lowly mansion, they encircled the bush 

 with briars and thorns in such a manner, that no sort of 

 enemy but man could gain access to it. They annually 

 repaired and fortified their dwelling in each succeeding 

 spring with strong thorny twigs, sometimes so large that 

 the pair jointly employed their force, dragging, at either 

 end, a stick that they were unable to lift from the 

 ground. 



The Pies also defend their nest and young with great 

 courage from the approach of the Crow, or even the Fal- 

 con and Eagle, and are said occasionally to carry off the 

 eggs, if the nest be too curiously observed. As might have 

 been anticipated from his sagacity, the Pie has been con- 

 sidered as a messenger of fate in the north of Europe, and 

 I have myself, when a boy, been often delighted or vexed, 

 by the augural destiny of their appearance in certain 

 lucky or unlucky numbers. The antiquity of this super- 

 stition, still in existence, goes back probably to the time 

 of the Romans. 



This species is 18 to 19 inches in length. The feathers of the tail 

 axe of very unequal lengths. The bill, iris, and feet are black. The 

 secondaries purplish blue. — The Pie varies sometimes to pure white, 

 with a reddish iris, being then an albino. Sometimes the whole plum- 

 age is variegated with tints of rufous grey, or black. Occasionally, 

 according to BuiFon, it occurs wholly black. 



Note. A second North American Magpie was met with in Frank- 

 lin's Arctic Expedition, which has been described by Sabine under 

 the name of Cortms hudsonius. 



