ioo THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



autumn that the Titmice are most prominent. 

 They are then most gregarious and social, and 

 often assemble into scattered flocks, wandering up 

 and down the woods in quest of food. The ob- 

 server will often find other birds in their company 

 small Finches, Nuthatches, and Creepers ; and 

 frequently enough three or four species of Tit- 

 mouse may be seen on the same tree in close 

 companionship. 



There can be little doubt that the one grand 

 attraction of the woods to the larger birds that 

 haunt them is the seclusion and cover they afford, 

 especially during the season of reproduction. With 

 birds of the Crow tribe, this is notoriously the case. 

 Were it not for the safety yielded by the woods, 

 even in the face of ever-watchful gamekeepers, 

 it is more than probable that at least three of our 

 handsomest birds would have been banished from 

 English soil entirely. First and foremost of these 

 widely is the MAGPIE (Pica ca^ldata), whose rich and 

 loricated plumage vies in metallic splendour with 

 any that tropic woods can boast. Fifty years' 

 incessant persecution by senseless gamekeepers, 

 and their still less sensible masters, has failed to 

 exterminate the Magpie from its woodland strong- 

 holds. It manages to elude the sharpest vigilance 

 and prosper fairly well ; although districts are 

 known to me where powder, poison, and traps have 

 worked its complete extermination. The Magpie 

 is one of the showiest of our native birds, and no 

 other living thing lends the woods a greater 

 charm. Birds of even more gaudy plumage haunt 

 them, but they hide themselves away among the 

 brushwood and the leafy branches. The Magpie 

 is fond of flying to and fro between the forests 



