

Birds by Land and Sea 



use the same nest in successive years, making addi- 

 tions at the beginning of each breeding season. The 

 birds commence nesting operations long before the 

 spring leaves appear, and already early in March 

 nests were in course of construction. It remained, 

 however, to be seen if they would be completed ; for 

 the magpie is a fastidious builder, and frequently 

 abandons, for some unapparent reason, the site it has 

 first selected. This bird's note a grating sound 

 shaken out loosely five or six times in succession 

 resembles in its quality the noise made by a rattle, 

 but in the form of its delivery is similar to the 

 bleating of a goat. It is generally heard before the 

 bird is seen, for the magpie, so wary in most 

 respects, no sooner sights a possible enemy than it 

 betrays its whereabouts by its alarm note, further 

 exposing itself by starting upon a long flight to 

 some distant tree, during which it often emits 

 another more acute and querulous note. Seen from 

 below on the wing, the bird roughly resembles a 

 dragon-fly in form, the long graduated tail causing 

 the short wings to appear as if set disproportionately 

 high on the shoulders. The flight is generally 

 directed upon a straight line, and is slow and 

 laboured, as if the bird were being held back by 

 some invisible thread attached to its long tail. 

 When it alights, the body is swayed forward on the 

 branch as the unmanageable tail shoots upward, so 

 that one cannot but wonder what natural process has 

 evolved and perpetuates such an obstructive member. 



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