PICA MELANOLEUCA. 485 



in which to lay. I have often been annoyed climbing up to 

 these unfinished nests in Stravithie Wood. Like the crows 

 they swallow from a maggot to a mouse. I knew one that 

 swallowed living mice, head first, but needed time. They also 

 live on carrion, eggs, young birds, grain, and fruit, doing more 

 good than ill ; for, as Pope truly says — 



" All nature is but art, unknown to thee ; 

 All chance, direction which thou canst not see : 

 All discord, harmony not understood ; 

 All partial evil, universal good." 



When flying, its long tail (20 inches) makes its wings seem 

 short, and its fluttering flight to make little headway, like a 

 yacht with too little sail. Yet their wings are of moderate 

 length, and by quick beats they fly steadily and moderately fast, 

 often chattering or chuckling as they fly. Unless the curlew or 

 plover on the moor, no bird gives more timely warnino- of 

 danger to other birds in wooded districts. If it sees a man 

 with a gun and gives its peculiar chattering cry, the so-called 

 sportsman's occupation, like Othello's in War, is gone — for that 

 time at least. It is an intelligent chatterer, an accomplished 

 trickster, with a good head, and perfect — if not elegant form 

 — has the combination of a dozen birds, and for courage and 

 dexterity possesses the talents of a feathered genius. Its black 

 head and bill, breast, wings, tail, and legs, and dark brown iris, 

 give it the look of a crow. But though it seems pied with 

 pure black and white, on looking closer, the black has the 

 metallic neck of the pigeon — an ever-varying iridescence of 

 green, blue, and purple reflections, in every shade, as the light 

 or the sun shines on the feathers, while the pure white of the 

 wing coverts and under parts contrast beautifully with these 

 rainbow hues. It is 18 inches long by 24 inches ; females 

 similar, but less. They sometimes go in small flocks. Comino- 

 home from Boarhills on January 10th, 1885, I saw thirty-three 

 in a stubble field near the site of old Kinglassie Wood, three and a 

 half miles from St Andrews. They flew up on some stunted trees 

 in a hedgerow as I passed. In some fir woods in the district 

 they are not rare. I know one in which they are so plentiful 

 that it is called the " pyet wood." Like the rest of the genera 

 they remain paired all year. The next allied species is the 

 jay, in the well-named genus Garrulous. There are many other 

 species distributed over the world, but as the magpie is the only 

 species of the Pica, so the jay is the only species of the genus 

 Garrulous in Britain, and the only two in Europe. The jays 



