568 PICA MELANOLEUCA. 



with thirty pounds weight of granite, you enter the birch and 

 alder woods that skirt the torrent which you have followed 

 from the hills, for there the Magpie indicates the existence of 

 man. Indeed you rarely find it far from human habitations, 

 for although not dependent upon man like the Sparrow, and 

 always shy and vigilant in the highest degree, it seems to find 

 it necessary to hang upon him. In places where it is privi- 

 leged it becomes bolder, perches on the house top, alights on 

 the dunghil, even approaches the door, and hops about among 

 the poultry ; for, like the Jackdaw, it accommodates itself to 

 circumstances, and among good easy people, whose boys are 

 not furnished with guns or pistols, it leads a happy life ; where- 

 as on the skirts of a town, or in a district full of gamekeepers, 

 poachers, and sportsmen, it is ever anxious and vigilant, and 

 good need it has to be so. 



The Magpie begins to construct its nest early in March, se- 

 lecting as its site the top of some tall tree, a poplar, an ash, an 

 elm, sometimes a willow, or a beech ; or, in defect of such in 

 a favourite locality, placing it in a thick bush of hawthorn, 

 holly, or other low tree, or even in a hedge. It is a large, and 

 therefore generally very conspicuous fabric, of a spheroidal 

 or elliptical form, composed first of a layer of twigs, on which 

 is laid a quantity of mud ; then of a dome of twigs, frequently 

 hawthorn or sloe, but as often of any other kind, loosely but 

 securely interlaced ; while the bottom of the interior is lined 

 with fibrous roots ; and there is left in the side an aperture not 

 much larger than is barely sufficient to admit the bird. It is 

 very probable that the Magpie, when in the nest, must keep 

 its tail erect or inclined forwards over the back, there being in 

 reality no other way in which it could be conveniently dis- 

 posed of. Why this bird should find it necessary, or rather 

 should be impelled, to cover its nest with such a defence, it is 

 not easy to guess. It cannot be for the purpose of protecting 

 itself or its eggs from rain, for the texture is so loose as to afford 

 no protection of that kind ; and if as a defence against the 

 attacks of other birds, it is strange that the rook and the wood 

 pigeon, which build in similar places, should need none. The 

 eggs are from three to six, and differ considerably in form and 



