UIllDS. 



165 



cither in the middle of some hawthorn-bush, or on the top of 

 some high tree. The place, however, is always found difticulc 

 of access; for the tree pitched upon usually grows in some thick 

 hedge-row fenced by brambles at the root ; or sometimes one of 

 the higher bushes is fixed upon for the purpose. When the 

 place is thus chosen as inaccessible as possible to men, the next 

 care is to fence the nest above so as to defend it from all the 

 various enemies of air. The kite, the crow, and the sparrow- 

 hawk, are to be guarded against ; as their nests have been some- 

 times plundered by the magpie, so it is reasonably i'eared that 

 they will take the first opportunity to retaliate. To prevent 

 this, the magpie's nest is built with surprising labour and in- 

 genuity. 



The body of the nest is composed of hawthorn branches, the 

 thorns sticking outward, but well united together by their mu- 

 tual insertions. Within it is lined with fibrous roots, wool, and 

 long grass, and then nicely plastered all round with mud and 

 clay. The body of the nest being thus made firm and commo- 

 dious, the next work is to make the canopy which is to defend 

 it above. This is composed of the sharpest thorns, wove to- 

 gether in such a manner as to deny all entrance except at the 

 door, which is just large enough to permit egress and regress to 

 the owners. In this fortress the male and female hatch and 

 bring up their brood with security, sheltered from all attacks 

 but those of the climbing school-boy, who often finds his torn 

 and bloody hands too dear a price for the eggs or the young ones. 

 The magpie lays six or seven eggs, of a pale green colour, spot- 

 ted with brown. 



This bird, in its domestic state, preserves its natural character 



Another wTiter says " it nestles in the tall hedge, or in a thick tree near the 

 rottage :" " it is no bird of the wilderness." This agrees with our own ob- 

 servations ; for we have reraaikcd the magpie to be no less partiiU to hu. 

 man neighbourhood than its congener the rook, and, so far from sequester, 

 ing itself, though it is certainly a shy and wary bird, we have seldom met 

 with it except near farmhouses. In the north, almost every farm has its 

 denizen pair of magpies, which incubate in their hereditary n(>st on the old 

 ash tree year after year, precisely like an hereditary colony of rooks. In 

 the more closely-wooded districts of the south, indeed, it does not so fre- 

 quently build on the trees in the farni-yard; yet we observed, in 1830, a 

 magpies nest in such a locality on the borders of Epping Forest, near Chig- 

 well, and another in a dump of ehns about a hundred yards from Siou 

 House, the seat of the Duke of Nortliumhorlaud 



