128 British Birds^ 



MAGPIE — {Pica riistica ; formerly, P. 

 caudata.) 



Pyet, Pianet, Madge, Mag. — A very wary, crafty, 

 shy bird the wild Magpie is. A very bold, impudent, 

 thievish rascal the domesticated Mag as certainly 

 proves himself. Shy and wary as these birds are in 

 a state of nature, no bird whatever seems to affect 

 concealment less in the fashion and structure and 

 position of its nest. Placed high up among the 

 smaller branches of a tallish tree, or perhaps in the 

 upper part of a strong, thick, high bush in a hedge or 

 standing lonely in a field or park, nothing can well be 

 more conspicuous than the massy Magpie's nest, with 

 its large though light dome of thorny sticks and twigs. 

 I used to be assured as a schoolboy that there were 

 two sorts or varieties of Magpies, distinguished by 

 the comparative length of their tails and the site of 

 their nests: — the alleged short-tailed one was called 

 the Bush Magpie ; the other the Tree Magpie. It is 

 almost idle to say no such variety or distinction 

 really exists. The materials of the nest are chiefly 

 sticks, plastered with earth inside, and lined with 

 roots and hair. There are often as many as six or 

 seven eggs laid in it, pale bluish-white in colour, 

 spotted all over, and abundantly so in general, with 

 (^rey and greenish brown of more than one shade. — 

 Fig. Z, plate V. 



JAY — {Garruhis glandaTius). 



Jay-pie, Jay-piet. — The Jay's peculiar screeching 

 note is perhaps more familiar to many ears than the 



