74 BIRDS FINCHESDIAGRAM 4 



with, moss or grass. The female lays five or six eggs in March ; 

 they are pale bluish green, with blotches. The male helps to 

 sit, and to rear the young. The ravens are courageous, and are 

 not afraid of either cats or dogs ; they are attached to their 

 master, and have been known, after having left the house to 

 return to a wild life, to come back of themselves daily to the 

 place where they received food, and were never injured. They 

 live very long ; and it is said for a century. 



The rooks and jackdaws are much smaller than the raven, and 

 live in flocks, either in groves or in the steeples of churches, 

 They go to a distance, in nocks, to seek their food, which varies 

 according, to the country and the season. In some places they 

 are looked upon as mischievous, and in others as useful. We 

 have pointed out the means for ascertaining the truth of this, in 

 each district. In the evening, the whole flock returns to the 

 grove or the steeple, and after uttering loud cries, go to sleep. 



The magpies, unlike the rooks and jackdaws, live in couples in 

 the neighbourhood of houses. Their plumage is black, with the 

 belly and part of the wings, white. The magpie is celebrated 

 for its cunning, and for its propensity to carry off and hide 

 whatever it meets with. It lays up in autumn a store of dried 

 fruits for the winter. Both sexes work at the construction of 

 the nest. It is often built at the tops of trees, and is constructed 

 externally of twigs plastered together with mud ; and is covered 

 by a kind of roof made of small thorny branches firmly inter- 

 laced, There is one door for entrance, and another for exit. 

 The bottom of the nest is lined with fine and flexible roots. 

 The female lays seven or eight eggs, on which both sexes sit 

 alternately. . 



The/tfy has a more brilliant plumage than the other birds of 

 this family ; it is intelligent, and can be taught to whistle, and 

 even to talk like a parrot. 



The Uacklird, oriole, and thrush form a small family of 

 indigenous birds. The oriole is of a fine yellow colour, and 

 inalses a nest which is always suspended like a cradle to the fork 



