232 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



the pasture-fields, but in Ireland and other countries 

 in which the bird is not persecuted it is not unusually 

 met with in flocks of thirty or forty, which resort to 

 a common roosting-place, and we know of an instance 

 in which upwards of fifty Magpies were shot in a 

 winter's evening by two gamekeepers in a small fir- 

 plantation in Ulster. Old nests of the Magpie are 

 much used by other birds as roosting-, nesting-, and 

 meeting-places ; and we have recorded a remarkable 

 case of this nature in this county in the ' Zoologist.' 



The nests and eggs of this species are, we presume, 

 too well known to our readers to require description 

 by our pen, but it may be worthy of record that we 

 have met with more than one nest without any dome 

 or covering, in these cases the dense thorn bushes, 

 in the centre of which the birds had built their 

 nurseries, rendering such protection or concealment 

 unnecessary. In confinement or, more properly 

 speaking, in semi-captivity, the Magpie is a very 

 amusing bird, but his ceaseless chatter is, to our ears, 

 most unmusical and annoying, and his thieving- and 

 hiding-instincts have long been historically famous or 

 infamous. 



100. JAY. 

 Garrulus glandarius. 



This beautiful bird is exceedingly common in all 

 parts of Northamptonshire with which we have any 

 acquaintance, and a very great ornament to our woods 

 and plantations. We cannot defend him from a 

 game-preserver's point of view, and he is decidedly 

 detrimental to the gardener, but his actions are so 



