218 SPRING. 



warily. We have not heard of its plundering the nest 

 of the swallow or the swift. 



What may be called the domestic manners of the 

 magpie are a little peculiar ; and though the birds are 

 rarely found in more than two at a time, as the pair 

 retain their attachment for the whole year, they have 

 occasional meetings, which the country people in some 

 places call " magpies' weddings/' Those meetings 

 are of rare occurrence, and as, when they do take 

 place, they last for some time, and are accompanied 

 with a great deal of gesticulation and chattering, they 

 attract the attention of the country people, and are 

 held as omens of events with which they, of course, 

 have no connexion. The odd numbers are harbingers 

 of woe, and the even of weal ; and as there are pretty 

 equal chances of these, or rather, as the two are most 

 frequently seen, if the observer will but wait a little, 

 the prognostic of the magpie rather leans towards being 

 an indication of gobd. Whether these associations be 

 or be not weddings, it is an established fact that wi- 

 dowed magpies find partners sooner than any other 

 pairing birds ; and we have heard of well authenti- 

 cated instances in which, when either the male or the 

 female had been killed in the course of the nest 

 building, a new one would join in the labour in the 

 course of a day or two. 



No birds of this country are greater adepts in nest 

 building than the magpies. Many birds build a 

 cradle, but the magpie constructs a house, nay, almost 

 a fortification ; for the sticks are so worked and wat- 

 tled together, that it is difficult to pull them asunder; 

 and the interior is usually so capacious, that there is 



