MAGPIES. 209 



destruction, which was not finally accomplished till the other 

 old one, arriving with a dead mouse, also lent its aid. The 

 female was observed to be the most active and thievish, and 

 withal very ungrateful ; for although the children about the 

 house had often frightened cats and hawks from the spot, yet 

 she one day seized a chicken, and carried it to the top of the 

 house to eat it, where the hen immediately followed, and 

 having rescued the chicken, brought it safely down in her 

 beak ; and it was remarked that the poor little bird, though 

 it made a great noise while the Magpie was carrying it up, 

 was quite quiet, and seemed to feel no pain while its mother 

 was carrying it down. These Magpies were supposed to have 

 been the very same pair which had built there for several 

 years, never suffering either the young, when grown up, or 

 anything else, to take possession of their bush. The nest 

 they carefully fortified afresh every spring, with rough, strong, 

 prickly sticks, which they sometimes drew in with their 

 united forces, if unable to effect the object alone. To this 

 tameness and familiarity the Magpie will sometimes add a 

 considerable degree of courage, and not satisfied with driving 

 away intruders from its premises, has been known to attack 

 animals much its superior in size. One of them was seen 

 pursuing a full-grown hare, making frequent and furious 

 pounces upon it, from which the animal at last escaped only 

 by making for a thick hedge, at the other side of which it 

 ran off to some distance from the place where it had entered, 

 without being observed by its pursuer. No cause could be 

 assigned for this assault. 



A favourable trait in their character occurred in Essex, 

 where some boys, having taken four young ones from a 

 Raven's nest, placed them in a wagon in a cart-shed. 

 About the same time, they happened to destroy the young of 

 a Magpie, which had built its nest near the cart-shed ; when 

 the old Magpie, hearing the young Eavens cry for food, 

 brought some, and constantly fed them till they were given 

 away by the boys. 



Generally speaking, these birds prefer our northern cli- 

 mates, though they are very plentifully spread over the 



