FEATHERED OUTCASTS. m 



bird than the Magpie in our British woods ; yearly it is 

 becoming scarcer, and doubtless complete extermination 

 awaits it in the near future. And what is the Magpie's 

 offence ? Why is he to be banished from the woods 

 and fields he adorns so well? Simply because he is 

 supposed to rob the Pheasants' nests and to strangle the 

 chicks. But the egg-stealing propensities of the Magpie 

 are not very serious ; and Pheasants and Partridges are 

 well able to take care of their eggs and young if left to 

 themselves. Chuckling to himself over the success of 

 his latest shot, the keeper walks on along the narrow 

 drive, leaving the path a moment to examine a couple 

 of mole-traps, each containing its inoffensive victim, 

 which are ruthlessly stuck in a forked twig among the 

 nut bushes. A little farther on, he pushes his way 

 through the underwood to visit a pitfall which he has 

 set for an unwary Jay, in the shape of an egg, poisoned 

 with strychnine, placed on the flat branch of a tree. 

 Sure enough he has been successful, and the poor bird 

 with expanded wings lies stiff and lifeless among the 

 dead leaves and bluebells at the foot of the tree. What 

 a mean advantage this ! The Jay in spring-time has a 

 proneness for eggs, but searches principally for those of 

 the smaller birds, and never thinks of molesting a 

 Pheasant or a Partridge when brooding on her nest. 

 The Jay's ravages among the eggs can only last for a few 

 weeks, then for the remainder of the year he subsists 



