MAGPIE 



Pica rustica 



EW birds are so well known as the graceful and pert Magpie. 

 The beauty of its plumage and its cheery chattering cry 

 make it one of the most popular of our British birds. It 

 is a fairly common bird throughout the British Islands, 

 though somewhat local in its distribution. It does not 

 stray to the outlying islands. 

 Although the Magpie is commonest in the well-wooded districts, it is not, 

 properly speaking, a woodland bird. Open parks studded with groups of 

 trees are its favourite haunts, and it may even be seen on the edge of the 

 moors in the vicinity of some fir plantation, to which it can retreat if alarmed. 

 It is a very wary bird, and seldom can be approached within gunshot, though 

 in places, where it is left unmolested, it will haunt the bushes round cottages, 

 and build its nest in an open tree or tall bush in some garden. In the pasture- 

 lands the Magpie may often be seen walking about among the feeding cattle, 

 sometimes even perching on their backs. It is a gregarious bird in many of 

 its habits, and numbers of them gather together in the autumn and winter to 

 some fir plantation, where they roost. 



The note of the Magpie is a harsh chatter, uttered as the bird hops from 

 twig to twig in some tall tree. During the breeding season it utters a number 

 of notes which are seldom heard at any other season ; among these may be 

 mentioned a shrill piping whistle. 



The destruction which the Magpie works among the eggs and young 

 chicks in the game-covers has earned for it much of the persecution to which 

 it is subjected. But it does a great deal of good at certain seasons, by 

 devouring large quantities of the noxious insects and grubs which frequent 

 the pasture-lands. Snails and worms are also eaten greedily, and it is said 

 to pick the vermin from the backs of sheep and cattle. In autumn the Magpie 

 eats the acorns and beech-mast, and does not object to an occasional meal 

 of carrion if hard pressed for food. 



Though the Magpie is found almost everywhere in the British Islands, 

 it is only in wooded districts that their nests may be found in any numbers. 

 VOL. in. 2 M 133 



