238 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
record of a Magpie’s nest with young birds in it 
having been placed in a cage in a room, and the 
window left open, the parent birds sufficiently over- 
came their usual wariness of disposition to enter the 
room and feed their young.* 
The Magpie is easily tamed, and is a most 
amusing bird in confinement, imitating the human 
voice, with some success, like the Jackdaw: like 
that bird, too, it has a most felonious disposition, 
and steals nearly anything it can come across. 
This is really one of our most beautiful birds, and 
by no means the merely black and white bird which 
is usually supposed. The beak is black; the irides 
hazel; the head, neck, back, throat and breast are 
black; the scapulars white; wing-coverts and tertials 
black, beautifully glossed with blue; the quills are 
black or dark green, according to the light on the 
outer web and at the tip and base of the inner web, 
the rest of the feather white; the rump is greyish ; 
the tail-coverts black; the tailis a beautiful greenish 
bronze, occasionally reflecting purple; belly and 
flanks white; thighs dullish black; under tail- 
coverts black; legs, toes and claws black. Varieties 
of the Magpie occasionally occur: one variety with 
a yellow beak gave rise to considerable discussion in 
the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1867 and 1868; two specimens 
of this variety had been seen, one in Devonshire and 
* © Zoologist’ for 1864, p. 8885. 
