238 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



record of a Magpie's nest with young birds in it 

 having been placed in a cage in a room, and the 

 window left open, the parent birds sufficiently over- 

 came their usual wariness of disposition to enter the 

 room and feed their young.* 



The Magpie is easily tamed, and is a most 

 amusing bird in confinement, imitating the human 

 voice, with some success, like the Jackdaw: like 

 that bird, too, it has a most felonious disposition, 

 and steals nearly anything it can come across. 



This is really one of our most beautiful birds, and 

 by no means the merely black and white bird which 

 is usually supposed. The beak is black ; the irides 

 hazel ; the head, neck, back, throat and breast are 

 black ; the scapulars white ; wing-coverts and tertials 

 black, beautifully glossed with blue ; the quills are 

 black or dark green, according to the light on the 

 outer web and at the tip and base of the inner web, 

 the rest of the feather white ; the rump is greyish ; 

 the tail-coverts black ; the tail is a beautiful greenish 

 bronze, occasionally reflecting purple ; belly and 

 flanks white ; thighs dullish black ; under tail- 

 coverts black ; legs, toes and claws black. Varieties 

 of the Magpie occasionally occur : one variety with 

 a yellow beak gave rise to considerable discussion in 

 the 'Zoologist' for 1867 and 1868; two specimens 

 of this variety had been seen, one in Devonshire and 



* ' Zoologist ' for 1864, p. 8885. 



