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THE CHAFFINCH. 279 
pheasants are crowing in every wood around; nor 
do the hoarse croakings of the carrion crows, or the 
frequent chatterings of the magpies, cause me any 
apprehensions that there will be a deficiency in the 
usual supply of game. 
The chief way to encourage birds is to forbid the 
use of fire-arms in the place of their resort. I have 
done so here ; and to this precaution I chiefly owe 
my unparalleled success.. We have a tame magpie 
in the stable yard. It is the same bird that is men- 
tioned in the paper on the stormcock, p. 254. Being 
one of the tribe whose plumage in the nest has the 
colours of that in after life, you cannot decide 
whether it is a male or a female. However, it has 
paired with a wild one; and although the wariness 
of the magpie is proverbial, nevertheless this strange 
bird will actually come and feed within a few yards 
of us, without betraying any symptoms of fear. 
For these two years, a Canada goose and gander, 
attracted hither by the quiet which this place 
affords, have made their nest on a little island of 
alder trees. Although the female has laid five eggs 
each year, still there has been no brood. ‘The 
gander seems to have been aware that something 
was going on wrong in his establishment, for this 
spring the old gentleman has taken care to introduce 
an extra female. Were Ovid, that excellent orni- 
thologist, now on earth, he would tell us that this 
he-goose, dissatisfied with our law of monogamy, 
has been as far as Constantinople to buy a licence 
for a plurality of wives. 
Amongst all the pretty warblers which flit from 
T 4 
