WHITS 25 



in the field will drive him to take wing. The more 

 quiet and cautious are your movements, the more will 

 you awaken his suspicion. Caution and quietness are 

 associated in his crafty mind with deeds of mischief; 

 with r aids upon the hen-roost, with the slaughter of the 

 innocents. Well does he know that when he ventures 

 near man's dwelling he takes his life in his hand ; the 

 traditions of his race remind him that none of all his 

 clan will meet with shorter shrift. 



The magpie is one of those birds which always have 

 been marked for popular disfavour. When a price is 

 offered for the heads of rooks, or when a village club 

 takes arms to exterminate Jack sparrow, the birds have 

 nowadays no lack of champions. Some, indeed, are 

 like Waterton, who defended the starling for the truly 

 British reason that there was nobody else to stand up 

 for him ; but there are many in these more enlightened 

 days who discourage the killing of the birds, because 

 they are no longer blinded by ignorance and prejudice. 



But where the sparrow and the rook are spared, w^hile 

 there is law for the innocent kestrel and protection for 

 the harmless, necessary owl, on the crow is a mark like 

 that of Cain. He is a bird of ill omen. His dress and 

 manners brand him as a thief and outlaw. 



But it is doubtful if even the crow has a reputation 

 more blown upon than the pie. Not even the crow, with 

 all his villany, can rank in craft and cunning with the 

 suspicious, unscrupulous, Ishmaelite magpie. 



And yet, to give even the magpie his due, he is, in 

 the main, a friend to man. His services may be un- 



