PERCHING BIRDS. 141 
interested in observing its lively habits. It is very fond 
of mingling with sheep, especially when feeding on 
turnips, and under cover of a hedge I have frequently 
stolen up and enjoyed a laugh at them. They search 
about for insects, now with a long elastic bound snapping 
a tick from a sheep’s fleece ; now looking up in its face 
with the utmost pertness, as much as to say, “I should 
like a peck at your eyes ;” and then, with a few vigorous 
hops, away to another. 
With regard to the haunts of the magpie, it appears 
most decidedly to prefer the cultivated farm land to the 
wilder forest, being rarely seen in the latter localities. In 
woods or plantations I never met with it ; and its nest, 
as far as I have observed, is almost always placed in 
hedgerow trees. The ash appears to be more frequently 
chosen than any other. I have often admired the archi- 
tectural beauty of the magpie’s nest, though why it 
builds it with a dome it is difficult to say. Certainly 
the structure is too open to afford any protection from 
the weather, but at the same time, as the nest is 
generally placed in isolated trees, the dome may be 
designed to screen the eggs from a passing plunderer, 
and for that it is quite sufficient. 
The assertions of some of our older naturalists that 
*the magpie builds her nest with two entrances seems to 
want verification. I never met with one so contrived. 
Nevertheless, such a construction is followed by some 
birds, the pheasant cuckoo of Australia for instance 
(Centropus phasianus), which I know builds a domed 
nest with an opening on each side, from which the head 
and tail of the female project when she is sitting; it is 
therefore possible that there may be some truth in the 
story. 
