THE MAGPIE. 321 



considered a crime), and spends the remainder of the year in works 

 of great utility to man, by destroying millions of insects, and by 

 preventing the air from being infected with the noxious effluvium 

 arising from the scourings of slaughter-houses. The cattle, too, are 

 in some degree benefited by the prying researches of this sprightly 

 bird. At a certain time of the year, it is often seen on the backs of 

 sheep and oxen, freeing them from vermin which must be exceed- 

 ingly troublesome to them. In Demerara, where the magpie does not 

 exist, this friendly office is performed by a hawk. Widely different 

 is the object of the jackdaw's visit to the backs of sheep and oxen: 

 it goes there for fleece the magpie for filth. 



I cannot suppose, with some naturalists, that the dome of the 

 magpie's nest is intended for a defence, because the hole at which 

 the bird enters is always open to an enemy, while the contents of the 

 nest are quite visible through the dome itself. The young of the 

 magpie being hatched blind, the eggs are never covered when the 

 parent bird leaves the nest. I am satisfied in my own mind, that 

 neither the magpie, nor any other bird, can have the least idea that 

 their nests will be robbed, up to the very moment when their eggs, 

 or their young, are taken away. Did they apprehend such a disaster, 

 we may be assured that their first object would be to build their nests 

 in a place out of harm's way. Now, the magpie generally chooses 

 the site for its intended incubation in a spot the most exposed that 

 can possibly be imagined. It will continue to work at the structure 

 of its nest, although we visit the nest two or three times a day ; and 

 it will return to the nest, and sit upon its eggs, after those eggs have 

 been handled times out of number. Nay, more; you may take away 

 its own eggs, and substitute those of some other bird, and it will 

 hatch them and rear the produce. The magpie (and we may include 

 all other birds) shows not that intensity of feeling for its eggs which 

 it is known to have for its young. Thus, if you take the eggs 

 from the nest and place them on the ground, the magpie will aban- 

 don them for ever ; but if you remove the young to a place to which 

 the parent bird can have access, she will regularly bring them a 

 supply of food. When there is an addle egg, it is allowed to remain 

 in the nest during the entire process of rearing the young. Birds 

 which make their nests in walls or in the holes of trees (the starling, 



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