106 MAGPIE 



very doors of houses, particularly in those countries where, 

 instead of being persecuted, they are preserved, from an 

 opinion that it is unlucky to kill them. Accordingly, in 

 Norway and Sweden, travellers are struck by their surprising 

 numbers and tameness, their nests being built in some low 

 bushy tree close to the cottage-doors, where they are never 

 disturbed." 



The Rev. I. Hall gives the following interesting account 

 of a nest of these birds, which he met with in Scotland : 

 " On the road between Huntly and Portsoy I observed two 

 Magpies hopping round a gooseberry bush in a small garden, 

 near a poor-looking house, in a peculiar manner, and flying 

 out of and into the bush. I stepped aside to see what they 

 were doing, and found, from the poor man and his wife, that 

 these Magpies, for several successive years, had built their 

 nest and brought up their young in this bush ; and that the 

 foxes, cats, &c., might not interrupt them, they had not only 

 barricaded the nest, but had encircled the bush with briars 

 and thorns in a formidable manner." 



The eggs are six or seven, rarely eight in number, are 

 pale bluish green or yellowish white in ground colour, 

 spotted all over with grey and greenish brown, more or 

 less dark. 



