228 MAGPIE. 



the Pacific to Michigan ; but in CaUfornia it is represented by 

 F. tm/talii, with yellow bill and ear-patch. Algeria and Morocco 

 are inhabited by F. viaiiritanica^ which has a bare blue ear-patch 

 and no grey on the rump ; but it is interesting to note that though 

 in Spain specimens from any part down to Seville are identical with 

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

 logically-recent connection with Africa existed, are distinctly inter- 

 mediate 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 cemented together with clay at 

 the foundation, with fine roots and dry grass as a lining. It is 

 generally placed at some height in the fork of a tree, but often in 

 tall— and sorhetimes in very low^ — hedges and thorn-bushes ; while 

 in Norway it is occasionally under the eaves of houses or on the 

 ground. Lord Lilford found several nests in the papyrus reeds 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 : average measurements i"35 by i in. As 

 regards its food, the Magpie is almost omnivorous ; the benefits it 

 confers by devouring slugs, snails, worms, rats and mice probably 

 counterbalancing its destructiveness to the eggs and young of poultry 

 and game ; while, as showing its boldness, Lord Lilford has recorded 

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

 attacking a sore-backed donkey in severe snowy weather, and 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 hover over and 

 swoop at an exhausted fox must be a familiar sight to many sports- 

 men, and frequently conveys to them the earliest intimation that the 

 quarry is sinking. 



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

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

 black, wath 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 measure sometimes 

 II in. ; wing 7*75 in. The female is slightly smaller and less brill- 

 iant in plumage ; while the feathers of the young have comparatively 

 little sheen. 



