1896-97-] The Magpie. 221 



days after I gave him a penny, over which he chuckled in his 

 own way. I then snatched it from him. There and then he 

 went to a small opening in the seam of the carpet, pulled out 

 the half-crown, held it up in his bill as much as to say, " There 

 it is, and you could not find it." I rewarded him with a bit 

 of an egg, a favourite dainty of his at all times. Speaking of 

 his fondness for eggs, I may give you a list of some of the 

 articles of food that constituted his bill of fare. Eggs, as I 

 have already mentioned, but only the yolk. Bits of beef and 

 mutton, raw or boiled, rabbit, chicken, cheese, bread and butter, 

 bread in milk, potatoes, were all heartily eaten when Jack was 

 hungry. Fish he avoided as poison — even in Lent. What I 

 give above were his civilised dishes. His wild or savage food 

 consisted of sparrows, mice, beetles, grubs, flies, wasps, &c. 

 His method of dealing with the wasp was cautious and 

 curious. The insect was seized crosswise, the abdomen 

 squeezed through the bird's bill in a sliding shifting manner, 

 when, snap ! and the poison -bag and sting were dropped, and 

 the remainder swallowed. His vegetable fare consisted of 

 green pease, gooseberries, and currants, and the indigestible 

 portion was ejected in pellets. In the summer he made the 

 garden his quarters, as it afforded him food and shade; and 

 being of a selfish nature, he did some good service by chasing- 

 other birds away from his own delicacies. There one day I 

 saw him kill a young sparrow, and he seemed to rejoice very 

 much in his own fashion over the dead bird. He carefully 

 buried it in the loose dry soil, and next day he raised the dead 

 and made a hearty meal of it. I may here give another 

 instance of his habit of hiding or burying food for another day. 

 In fact, this bird was far more provident in this respect than 

 thousands of the lords of creation, who " take no thought for 

 the morrow," with the result that we have to pay their bill in 

 the poorhouse and their burial through the rates. 



But to proceed with Jack. One day the cat was playing with 

 a dead mouse on a plot of grass before the window. The bird 

 eyed the play, and coveted the mouse. He first attacked the 

 cat in front, but every time he came near the armed claw and 

 paw were raised ready to strike. He knew what that meant. 

 Then, like a skilful general, he attacked puss in the rear by 

 giving her tail a strong pull. Of course the cat turned round 



