WEST OF THE ADUR 



then alighted again a little further away. Again the 

 same magpie got up and went for it ; and the same 

 thing happened over and over again, until the perse- 

 cuted pigeon gave up trying to feed there and flew 

 back to the farm-house, and the magpie, well satisfied, 

 returned to its game of romps with its fellows. How 

 amusing these crow-brained creatures are, not only 

 when we see them as pets, and laugh at their pranks, 

 but away from us in then* wild state where there is no 

 human witness of their actions ! They are like preter- 

 naturally shrewd and mischief-loving little boys, who 

 for the love of wildness in them have been changed 

 into wild birds. I could imagine this particular mag- 

 pie saying, " No, no ! You may be a very pretty bird, 

 and inoffensive, and a first cousin of our friend and 

 neighbour the ringdove, who lays very nice eggs in 

 summer; but you are tame, domestic, and have no 

 business to come here to associate with wild birds. 

 Off you go ! " 



That evening, at the inn where I was staying, I 

 spoke about the magpies and their funny little ways, 

 my mind being still full of the subject, whereupon the 

 landlady told me the following story. Her husband, 

 she said, was exceedingly fond of magpies, and always 

 kept one when he had the chance, and this fondness 

 dated back to the period of childhood, when a very 

 amusing tame magpie was kept by his father. He 

 was a carpenter in a little rustic village in North 

 Hampshire ; his earnings were small, and he was 



