HABITS OP THE MAGPIE. 205 



but between this zealous church-goer and the wood-haunting 

 Jay, stands that Ishmael of the feathered tribes, the Magpie 

 ( Cor v us pica), which, harassed and persecuted by almost every- 

 body, repays his ill-usage by wholesale depredations and a sort of 

 instinctive love of mischief. It is rather a suggestive circum- 

 stance, however, that in Norway and Sweden, where this bird is 

 extremely common, and is taken great care of by the people, it 

 bears an opposite character. In Norway especially, where it is a 

 great favourite, it has little of the sly cunning and suspicion 

 which it exhibits with us, and lives on the most familiar terms 

 with the inhabitants, picking up its food at their doors and 

 frequently entering inside their houses. 



With us the Magpie has certainly a most unamiable reputa- 

 tion. It seems to be equally fond of animal and vegetable food, 

 now helping itself to the newly-sown grain or the gardener's 

 fruits, and now sharing with the Rooks their grubs and worms. 

 But no sort of animal food comes amiss ; and most ruthlessly 

 does it go to work to gratify its appetite. It storms the nests of 

 small birds, and robs them of their eggs and young ; it carries 

 off the young broods from the poultry yard and the game pre- 

 serves; it attacks young hares and rabbits; and at times will 

 even attempt the destruction of lambs and weakly sheep, first 

 plucking out their eyes. But with all this truculence and 

 rapacity, the Magpie has still a tender place in its heart. Game- 

 keepers know well that when once they are in possession of its 

 young the old birds may easily be lured to their own destruction. 



The nest of the Magpie is a very bulky affair, constructed of 

 small branches and twigs interlaced together, generally placed 

 high up on some tree-top where few people having a regard for 

 their necks care to venture, how light soever they may make of 

 the wise saw which avers that no good ever comes to man or boy 

 who takes a Magpie's nest. It does sometimes happen, however, 

 that where high trees are few and far between, the Magpie will 

 build in low bushes ; and Bishop Stanley tells an interesting 

 story of a pair of these birds, which, in a remote and barren part 

 of Scotland, had for several years built their nest and brought 

 up their young in a gooseberry bush. But perfectly conscious 

 of the dangers to which they were there exposed, they barricaded 

 not only the nest, but the bush itself, all round with briers and 

 thorns firmly entwined together, and nearly a yard in thickness ; 



