20 



INTRODUCTION 



Be kind to all — to waw, to beast. 

 Bird, Jish, worm, insect ; thus a feast 

 Of happiness will he partake, 

 And happy other beings make. 



not very regularly marked, one on each side of its covering. 

 This covering is an irregular kind of lattice-work, formed of 

 thorns, and is evidently designed as a defence from some birds 

 of prey ; it is no shelter from the weather. The magpie always 

 builds a solitary nest, either in a thorn-bush or on some lofty 

 elm, and sometimes on an apple-tree j it does not often build 

 very near dwelling-houses, but a remarkable exception to this 

 I) as lately occurred in Somersetshire, at Huntspill : a magpie 

 vot only having bHilt its nest on a tree a very short distance 

 from a dwelling-house, but it occupied the saine nest two years 

 successively. We may be tolerably certain that this bird was 

 not disturbed during the first year, or it would not, most pro- 

 bably, have returned to the same nest a second time. I appre- 

 hend the magpie, as well as its neighbours, the rook and crow, 

 to be a very useful bird in the destruction of worms, of which it 

 partakes as food. 



The House- Spaj row, as its name indicates, builds very often 

 beneath the eaves of the thatch, as well as of the tiles of dwell- 

 ing-houses. Its nest is composed of straw and feathers; it has 

 usually a hole for an entrance, similar to the wren's. The house- 

 sparrow is, however, no churl iu the choice of a site for a nest. 

 I once saw a house-sparrow's nest in that of a deserted magpie's 

 nest. They will sometimes take possession of the martin's 

 nest; and some curious facts have been stated concerning the 

 battles of these two very different birds. In the neighbourhood 

 of London, and indeed in Hoxton-square in London, the houset 

 sparrow's nest will be seen on the Lomhardy poplar; the only 

 kind of nest which I ever saw on that tree, — it does not seem a 

 favourite of any of the tribe of birds. Wilson informs us that 



