

March 



Whatever be the value of a magpie's wings and tail 

 as a means of locomotion, as adornments they go to 

 make up a singularly elegant and striking bird. A 

 bird of eighteen inches from beak to tail, of a 

 lustrous black, contrasting strongly with the white 

 underparts, the bold white scapulars, and the flicker- 

 ing black and white of the primaries, it is by far 

 the most conspicuous of our inland species. The 

 magpie's good looks, however, go with a bad reputa-*- 

 tion for egg and chick stealing, and its bedraggled 

 form may be found in any gamekeeper's " museum" 

 in company with the mortal remains of weasels, 

 stoats, hawks, crows, jays, and similar malefactors. 

 What a fine set some of these same malefactors are 

 the fleet, the strong, the cunning ! And in the 

 interest of what are they thus cut off? Principally 

 of an imported creature which degenerates (as it 

 could not but degenerate) in proportion to the 

 degree to which it is protected, so that men must 

 go round and collect its eggs, and bring them in 

 for incubation by a farmyard fowl. Game birds 

 probably suffer less from the depredations of the 

 magpie than small birds generally. I observe that 

 the rook so partial to his corvine relatives, the jack- 

 daw and starling will not suffer the presence of a 

 magpie, although a bird of the same stock : and the 

 rook should know ; for, although he has managed 

 to ingratiate himself with the lord of the manor, he 

 is not above a fresh egg himself, nor even a chick, for 

 that matter. 



