402 THE GAME PRESEKVER's GUIDE. 



sticks, and in it are laid five or six eggs, of a pale bluish white 

 spotted with, clove brown and ash colour; length one inch 

 seven lines breadth one inch. 



THE MAGPIE (Pica caudata). 



The appearance of this lively bird is too well known to 

 need description, and being a sad destroyer of game, it is, as 

 far as possible, exterminated from his district by every 

 keeper. All kinds of animal food will be eagerly devoured 

 by it, whether dead or alive, from the dead horse to the 

 cockchafer. Young poultry and game birds, as well as their 

 eggs, are especially sought after ; and leverets as well as young 

 rabbits are titbits which the magpie cannot resist. These 

 birds pair all the year round ; the nest is curiously devised, the 

 whole structure being interlaced very strongly with sticks, 

 leaving only an aperture at the side for the birds to go in 

 and out. This framework is lined with clay, inside which 

 is a layer of roots and grass. The nest is sometimes made 

 in high trees, and at others in low bushes, especially of the 

 thorn tribe ; and this difference in the nesting-place has been 

 attempted to be made a means of splitting up the species 

 into two varieties. The eggs are six or seven in number, of 

 a pale bluish white ground spotted with olive brown and 

 green, and also with ash colour. Their length is one inch 

 and four lines breadth one inch. 



THE JAY (Garrulus glandarius). 



The jay comes last in the list of game destroyers, and, like 

 the jackdaw, is chiefly obnoxious to the keeper from its egg- 

 sucking propensities, though it will no doubt occasionally 

 seize a very young partridge or pheasant when it has the 

 chance. Its food is chiefly of a vegetable nature acorns, beech- 

 mast, and garden fruits being the most attractive to it. It 

 inhabits thick coverts, and is seldom found in the open. The 

 nest is built of sticks lined with grass, in a low tree or high 

 hedgerow. The eggs are five or six, of a yellow white thickly 

 spotted with light brown ; length one inch four lines breadth 

 one inch. The adult bird is from thirteen to fourteen inches 



