132 THE MAGPIE. 



thus' for a few autumnal mornings and counselling with 

 each other around their abandoned and now useless 

 nests, which before the return of spring are generally 

 beaten from the trees, is by no means manifest to us. 



The sense of smelling seems often to supply in 

 animals the want of faculties they are not gifted with ; 

 and it is this power which directs them to their food 

 with greater certainty, than the discernment of man 

 could do. That we have every faculty given us neces- 

 sary for the condition in which we are placed, is mani- 

 fest; yet the mechanical talents and intuition of the 

 insect, the powers that birds and beasts possess, and 

 the superior acuteness of some of their senses, of which, 

 perhaps, we have little conception, makes it evident 

 that all created things were equally the objects of their 

 Maker's benevolence and care ; the worm that creepeth, 

 and the beast that perisheth, deserve our consideration, 

 and claim from human reason mercy and compassion. 



The tall tangled hedge-row, the fir grove, or the old, 

 well- wooded inclosure, constitutes the delight of the 

 magpie (corvus pica), as there alone its large and dark 

 nest has any chance of escaping observation. We here 

 annually deprive it of these asylums, and it leaves us ; 

 but it does not seem to be a bird that increases much 

 anywhere. As it generally lays eight or ten eggs, and 

 is a very wary and cunning creature, avoiding all ap- 

 pearance of danger, it might be supposed that it would 

 yearly become more numerous. Upon particular occa- 

 sions we see a few of them collect; but the general 

 spread is diminished, and as population advances, the 

 few that escape will retire from the haunts and perse- 

 cutions of man. These birds will occasionally plunder 

 the nests of some few others; and we find in early 

 spring the eggs of our out-laying domestic fowls fre- 

 quently dropped about, robbed of their contents. That 

 the pie is a party concerned in these thefts, we cannot 

 deny, but to the superior audacity of the crow we at- 

 tribute our principal injury. However the magpie may 

 feed on the. eggs of others, it is particularly careful to 

 guard its own nest from similar injuries by covering 

 it with an impenetrable canopy of thorns, and is our 



