MAGPIE FIELDS 



were ten magpies together on 

 the Qth of September, 1881, in a field 

 of clover beside a road but twelve 

 miles from Charing Cross. Ten mag- 

 pies would be a large number to see at once any- 

 where in the south, and not a little remarkable so 

 near town. The magpies were doubtless young 

 birds which had packed, and were bred in the nests 

 in the numerous elms of the hedgerows about there. 

 At one time they were scattered over the field, 

 their white and black colours dotted everywhere, 

 so that they seemed to hold entire possession of it. 

 Then a knot of them gathered together, more 

 came up, and there they were all ten fluttering and 

 restlessly moving. After a while they passed on 

 into the next field, which was stubble, and, collected 

 in a bunch, were even more conspicuous there, as 

 the stubble did not conceal them so much as the 

 clover. That was on the Qth of September ; by 

 the end of the month weeds had grown so high 

 that the stubble itself in that field had disappeared, 

 and from a distance it looked like pasture. In 

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