350 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



They are so small and so fragile that the novice finds great diffi- 

 culty in emptying them without breaking their delicate shells. 

 This task may, however, be accomplished with perfect ease and 

 safety if managed in the right way. Each egg should be envel- 

 oped in repeated wrappers of silver paper, soaked in a solution 

 of gum-arabic, one layer being allowed to dry before the next is 

 added. When they are dry, a little hole is easily drilled on one 

 side by means of a needle, the contents of the egg are then broken 

 up with the same needle, and are then washed out by injecting 

 water through a very delicate glass tube. Any one can make 

 these slender tubes by merely taking a piece of ordinary glass 

 tubing, heating it in a spirit lamp, and drawing the ends apart. It 

 may then be broken off to form a tube of any degree of fineness, 

 and by alternate injection of water and sucking the diluted con- 

 tents into the tube, the egg will soon be emptied. 



We have another well-known bird which makes a nest as well 

 domed as that of the long-tailed titmouse, though not nearly so 

 pretty nor so elegant. This is the common Magpie (Pica cauda- 

 ta), which is one of the very handsomest birds that are indigenous 

 to England. Popularly the Magpie is thought to be only black 

 and white ; in reality there is scarcely a black feather about the 

 bird, its plumage being adorned with steel-blue, green, and pur- 

 ple of such intensity that in certain' lights they appear to be jetty 

 black. I may here mention that the wings and tail of the Mag- 

 pie can be made into beautiful fire-screens, which are light and 

 elegant as well as brilliantly colored. 



The nest of the Magpie is of very large size when compared 

 with the dimensions of the architect, probably on account of the 

 long tail of the mother bird, which can not be protruded over the 

 edge of the nest, as is the case with many long-tailed birds. It 

 is not merely made of moss and similar soft substances, but the 

 frame-work is very strongly constructed of sticks, among which 

 are generally interwoven a number of sharp thorns, so that the 

 nest is nearly as unpleasant to the bare hand as a thistle. More- 

 over, the bird has a way of gathering the thorns round the en- 

 trance, so that the hand can not be inserted into the nest without 

 danger of many wounds. Indeed, the nest is so large, and the 

 eggs lie so far from the entrance, that to extract them is generally 

 a task that can not be accomplished without the aid of a knife. 



Besides the thorny defense, the nest is mostly strengthened by 



