128 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
grasshoppers ; October, grasshoppers, carrion, beetles, 
and green locusts; November, grasshoppers and 
kernels of fruit; December, grubs of cockchafers, 
young rabbits, and berries.” 
To this catalogue must be added, at different 
periods of the year, rats, young birds, lizards, frogs, 
snails, and carrion, while game birds are not unfre- 
quently carried off by a magpie poacher, to the great 
indignation of the keeper. 
Partly on account of its marauding propensities, 
and partly owing to the superstitious dread with 
which it is still regarded in many country districts, 
the magpie has been terribly persecuted, and until of 
late years was almost without a friend. Waterton, 
however, protected the bird “fon account of its 
having nobody to stand up for it.” Now, happily, 
better counsels in many cases prevail, and the 
services rendered by the bird are allowed to atone for 
the mischief which it commits in other ways. And 
the services in question are undoubtedly of a very 
distinct and valuable nature, as may be judged by 
the above list of its diet; while, to pass from great 
things to small, cattle are often relieved by it in no 
small degree owing to the perseverance with which it 
will follow up and capture the vermin which annoy 
them so greatly. It is, in fact, only during the breed- 
ing season that the magpie is mischievous to any 
great degree, for beyond the occasional theft of a 
little fruit, it robs us only to a very slight extent 
during the remainder of the year. 
The architectural powers of the magpie are of a 
