238 MAGPIE. 



Eastward— subject to a variation in the amount of white in the 

 plumage, which has led to the creation of several species— the 

 Magpie is found across Asia to India, China and Japan, as well as in 

 the northern portion of America from the Pacific to Michigan ; but 

 in California it is represented by P. niiftaHi, with yellow bill and 

 ear-patch. Algeria and Morocco are inhabited by F. inauritanica, 

 which has a bare blue ear-patch and no grey on the rump ; and 

 although Magpies in Spain down to Seville are identical with 

 those from Norway, yet examples from the Alpujarras, where a 

 geologically-recent connection with Africa existed, are distinctly 

 intermediate between the typical and the African species. 



The nest, large and domed, is often begun towards the end of 

 March, and is made of thorny sticks on a foundation of turf and 

 clay plastered with earth inside, fine roots and dry grass being the 

 lining. It is generally placed at some height in the fork of a tree, 

 but often in tall — though sometimes in very low — hedges and thorn- 

 bushes ; while in Norway it is occasionally under the eaves of houses 

 or on the ground. The late Lord Lilford found several nests in the 

 papyrus of the Anapo, near Syracuse. The eggs, usually 6 but 

 sometimes 9 in number, are bluish-green or yellowish-white in 

 ground-colour, closely freckled with olive-brown : measurements 

 I "4 by I in. In its food, the Magpie is almost omnivorous; the 

 benefits it confers by devouring slugs, snails, worms, rats and 

 mice, as well as the eggs of Ring-Doves, probably counter- 

 balancing its destructiveness to the eggs and young of game and 

 poultry. As showing its boldness, the late Lord Lilford has 

 recorded (Zool. 1888, p. 184) an instance of fourteen or fifteen 

 Magpies attacking a sore-backed donkey in snowy weather, while, 

 after its death from natural causes, several were shot in the act of 

 feeding upon its body. The note is a harsh chatter, kept up inces- 

 santly as long as any obnoxious person or animal remains in its 

 haunts ; while the manner in which the bird will swoop at an 

 exhausted fox must be a familiar sight to many sportsmen. 



The adult male has the head, neck, back and breast black, glossed 

 with green and violet ; rump grey ; scapulars and belly white ; 

 secondaries black, with violet lustre ; primaries black, glossed with 

 green, and having an elongated patch of white on their inner webs ; 

 tail black, iridescent with greenish-bronze ; bill, legs and feet 

 black. Average length 18 in., of which the longest tail-feathers 

 sometimes measure 11 in.; wing 775 in. The female is slightly 

 smaller and less brilliant in plumage, and has a shorter tail ; while 

 the feathers of the young have comparatively little sheen. 



