THE MAGPIE. 189 



that creepeth, and the beast that perisheth, deserve 

 our consideration, and claim from human reason 

 mercy and compassion. 



The tall tangled hedgerow, the fir grove, or 

 the old,' well-wooded enclosure, 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 

 any where. As it generally lays eight or ten eggs, 

 and is a very wary and cunning creature, avoiding 

 all appearance of danger, it might be supposed 

 that it would yearly become more numerous. 

 Upon particular occasions 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 persecutions 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 frequently 

 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 attribute 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 only bird that uses 





