MAGPIE 163 



scene of excitement with due caution, poor beautiful Mag, dead, and 

 shattered with shot, will soon be added to his festering trophies. 



The usual sound emitted by the magpie is an excited chatter — a 

 note with a hard, percussive sound, rapidly repeated half a dozen 

 times. It may be compared to the sound of a wooden rattle, or to 

 the bleating of a goat ; but there is always a certain resemblance to 

 the human voice in it, especially when the birds are unalarmed, and 

 converse with one another in subdued tones. But it is more like 

 the guttural voice of the negro than the white man's voice. Their 

 subdued chatter has sometimes produced in me the idea that I was 

 listening to the low talking and laughing of a couple of negroes 

 lying on their backs somewhere near. It is well known that this 

 bird can be taught to articulate a few words. 



The magpie is a notable architect, and as a rule builds his nest 

 in a tall tree in or on the borders of a wood ; sometimes in a low, 

 isolated tree or large bush, or in the centre of a thick hedge. It is 

 large, and formed of sticks and mud, with a hoUow in the centre, 

 plastered with mud and lined with fibrous roots ; over this soUd 

 platform and nest a large dome of loosely interwoven thorny sticks 

 is built, with a hole in the side just large enough to admit the bird. 



Magpies pair for life, and the nest may serve the birds for several 

 years, a Httle repairing work being bestowed on it each spring. The 

 eggs are usually six in number, but in some cases as many as nine 

 are laid. In colour they are pale bluish green, very thickly spotted 

 and freckled with olive-brown, and faintly blotched with ash-colour. 



The magpie may be easily tamed ; even the wild birds, when 

 not persecuted, become strongly familiar with man, and come about 

 the house like fowls. In a state of nature he subsists on grubs, 

 worms, snails, slugs, and various insects, and will eat any kind of 

 animal food that offers, not excepting carrion ; he also devours young 

 birds and eggs, and is fond of ripe fruit. He is supposed to be a 

 deadly enemy of the poultry-yard, and a stealer of pheasant and 

 partridge chicks ; but it is certain that his depredations have been 

 greatly exaggerated. 



Jackdaw. 



Corvus monedula. 



Crown and upper parts black with violet reflections ; back of the 

 head and nape grey ; iris white ; under parts dull black. Length, 

 fourteen inches. 



