THE MAGPIE. 185 



a few of them collect ; but the general spread is di- 

 minished, 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 

 such a precaution, securing it from all common 

 depredation, though not from the hand of the 

 bird-nesting boy. When a hatch is effected, the 

 number of young demand a larger quantity of 

 food than is easily obtained, and whole broods of 

 our ducklings, whenever they stray from the yard, 

 are conveyed to the nest. But still the " maggot" 

 is not an unuseful bird, as it frees our pastures 

 of incredible numbers of grubs and slugs, which 

 lodge themselves under the crusts formed by the 

 dung of cattle. These the birds, with their strong 

 beaks, turn over, and catch the lurking animals 

 beneath, and then break them to search for more ; 

 by which means, during winter, they will spread 

 the entire droppings in the fields ; and by spring I 

 have had, especially under the hedges, all this 

 labour saved to me by these assiduous animals. 



