BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



137 



immunity from man, for it barricades it with thorns, domes 

 it over, and very skilfully conceals the entrance. Moreover, 

 it has the sagacity to build, as a rule, in tall hawthorns, than 

 which no tree offers more difficulties to even the hardiest and 



LONG-EARED OWL 



most weasel-bodied bird's-nester. Failing trees, as happened 

 in a certain barrens pot in the north of Scotland, magpies will 

 build in a gooseberry-bush, but finding this position excep- 

 tionally exposed to enemies, they not only built their nest 

 of the usual strength, but fortified the bush itself with a 

 chevaux-de-frise of dead gooseberry-twigs, a foot in thickness, 

 and impenetrable even by a mouse. To this stronghold 



