MAGPIES. 215 



know all the people and all the animals. When any 

 one passed them, they just hopped out of the way; 

 they would alight on the green, almost at the nose of 

 the old mastiff; and when the horses went to water, or 

 the cows to the paddock, the magpies generally took 

 their march in the same direction. When the snow lay 

 deep they came to the farm yard and picked grains 

 along with the poultry ; and when corn was strewed 

 down for these, they hopped in for their share. When, 

 however, the season was so far advanced that there 

 were broods of chickens, the magpies made their ad- 

 vances with more caution, but whether from fear of the 

 brood hens, or what other cause, there is no knowing. 

 There was one operation from which they were never 

 absent, and that was when a stack of corn was removed 

 from the farm yard to the barn in cold weather. The 

 stacks were built on the ground without any of those 

 contrivances by which, in more improved husbandry, 

 vermin are excluded. Thus the stack had often a 

 whole colony of murine inhabitants, and the removal of 

 their domicile was a season of general slaughter ; and 

 though those who combined in this work were at other 

 times in hostility with each other, they made common 

 cause against the mice. Men, boys, terriers, and cats, 

 were all at work ; and when the scramble and squeak- 

 ing commenced, the magpies, which were never at any 

 great distance, came hopping to have their share, 

 without evincing the least fear, or meeting with the 

 least hostility. These magpies were equally free in 

 purveying for the softer materials with which they line, 

 or rather cushion, the nursery part of their nests. We 

 have seen them perch on the backs of the sheep and 



