THE MAGPIE. 



97 



hood of the line. There they not only paint 

 the scene with the beauty and the variety of 

 their plumage, but stun the ear with their vo- 

 ciferation. In those luxurious forests, the 

 singing-birds are scarcely ever heard, but a 

 hundred varieties of the pie, the jay, the rol- 

 ler, the chatterer, and the toucan, are contin- 

 ually in motion, and with their illusive mock- 

 cries disturb or divert the spectator, as he hap- 

 pens to be disposed. 



The Magpie is the chief of this kind with 

 us, and is too well known to need a description. 



Indeed, were its other accomplishments equal 

 to its beauty, few birds could be put in com- 

 petition. Its black, its white, its green, and 

 purple, with the rich and gilded combination 

 of the glosses on its tail, are as fine as any 

 that adorn the most beautiful of the feathered 

 tribe. But it has too many of the qualities of 

 a beau to depreciate these natural perfections : 

 vain, restless, loud, and quarrelsome, it is an 

 unwelcome intruder every where ; and never 

 misses an opportunity, when it finds one, of 

 doing mischief. 



The magpie bears a great resemblance to 

 the butcher-bird in its bill, which has a sharp 

 process near the end of the upper chap, as well 

 as in the shortness of its wings, and the form 

 of the tail ; each feather shortening from the 

 two middlemost. But it agrees still more in 

 its food, living not only upon worms and in- 

 sects, but also upon small birds when they 

 can be seized. A wounded lark, or a young 

 chicken separated from the hen, are sure plun- 

 der ; and the magpie will even sometimes set 

 upon and strike a blackbird. 



The same insolence prompts it to tease the 

 largest animals, when its insults can be offered 

 with security. They often are seen perched 

 upon the back of an ox or a sheep, pecking up 

 the insects to be found there, chattering, and 

 tormenting the poor animal at the same time, 

 and stretching out their necks for combat, if 

 the beast turns its head backward to repre- 

 hend him. They seek out also the nests of 

 birds : and, if the parent escapes, the eggs 

 make up for the deficiency: the thrush and 

 the blackbird are but too frequently robbed by 

 this assassin, and this, in some measure, causes 

 their scarcity. 



VOL. II. 



No food seems to come amiss to this bird ; 

 t shares with ravens in their carrion, with 

 rooks in their grain, and with the cuckoo in 

 airds' eggs : but it seems possessed of a pro- 

 vidence seldom usual with gluttons ; for when 

 it is satisfied for the present, it lays up the re- 

 mainder of the feast for another occasion. It 

 will even in a tame state hide its food when it 

 has done eating, and after a time return to the 

 secret hoard with renewed appetite and voci- 

 feration. 



In all its habits it discovers a degree of in- 

 stinct unusual to other birds. Its nest is not 

 less remarkable for the manner in which it is 

 composed, than for the place the magpie takes 

 to build it in. The nest is usually placed 

 conspicuous enough, either in the middle of 

 some hawthorn bush, or on the top of some 

 high tree. The place, however, is always 

 found difficult of access ; for the tree pitched 

 upon usually grows in some thick hedge-row 

 fenced by brambles at the root ; or sometimes 

 one of the higher bushes is fixed upon for the 

 purpose. When the place is thus chosen as 

 inaccessible as possible to men, the next care 

 is to fence the nest above so as to defend it 

 from all the various enemies of air. The kite, 

 the crow, and the sparrow-hawk, are to be 

 guarded against; as their nests have been 

 sometimes plundered by the magpie, so it is 

 reasonably feared that they will take the first 

 opportunity to retaliate. To prevent this, the 

 magpie's nest is built with surprising labour 

 and ingenuity. 



The body of the nest is composed of haw- 

 thorn branches, the thorns sticking outward, 

 but well united together by their mutual in- 

 sertions. Within it is lined with fibrous 

 roots, wool, and long grass, and then nicely 

 plastered all round with mud and clay. The 

 body of the nest being thus made firm arid 

 commodious, the next work is to make the 

 canopy which is to defend it above. This is 

 composed of the sharpest thorns, wove together 

 in such a manner as to deny all entrance ex- 

 cept at the door, which is just large enough to 

 permit egress and regress to the owners. In 

 this fortress the male and female hatch and 

 bring up their brood with security, sheltered 

 from all attacks but those of the climbing 

 school-boy, who often finds his torn and bloody 

 hands too dear a price for the eggs or the 

 young ones. The magpie lays six or seven eggs, 

 of a pale green colour, spotted with brown. 



This bird, in its domestic state, preserves 

 its natural character with strict propriety. 

 The same noisy mischievous habits attend it 

 to the cage that marked it in the woods ; and 

 being more cunning, so it is also a more do- 

 cile bird than any other taken into keeping. 

 Those who are desirous of teaching it to speak 

 have a foolish custom of cutting its tongue, 



