May — Magpies. 143 



speaking, they are masons only, working after the plans 

 of a greater Architect than those who devise big palaces 

 in stone and mortar ? If masons only, at least they are 

 most industrious masons. The Marquis de Cherville, 

 who is an accurate observer of what passes too often 

 unobserved in the quiet routine of Nature, says that he 

 watched a pair of magpies from the beginning of their 

 nest-building to the end. They had fixed themselves 

 in a large poplar, just before M. de Cherville's window, 

 and he watched them both from his desk and from his 

 bed, missing hardly any thing that they did. The work 

 lasted for forty-seven days, during which, especially in 

 the morning and evening, the two birds carried materials 

 with a feverish activity. In a single day he counted 

 two hundred and eight journeys in quest of material, 

 and this was not the whole. But the nest of a magpie 

 is a very rude affair, indeed, when compared with the 

 highly finished and delicate workmanship of many other 

 birds. The thrush, the tom-tit, and some kinds of lin- 

 net, are master-builders in different ways. The thrush 

 makes the outside of his nest with almost any thing 

 that comes to hand, — with moss, with straw, or dried 

 leaves ; but his great skill is displayed in the fabrica- 

 tion of the stout mill-board that constitutes its inner 

 wall or shell, made of wet mud well beaten, strength- 

 ened with bits of straw and roots. The thrush likes 

 this hard and smooth interior, not caring for the lux- 

 ury of soft feather-beds, but some other birds are more 

 luxurious. The greenfinch and goldfinch are amongst 

 the cleverest of bird upholsterers. They know how to 



