PLUMAGE AND FORM 283 



Let us first look a little more closely at the form 

 and plumage of the bird, when he is fresh from his 

 native haunts ; and then try to picture to ourselves, 

 what is more important and interesting still, some- 

 thing of his life-history, of his habits and his 

 aptitudes, something, in short, of the heart and 

 the brain the latter, as in all the crow tribe, very 

 highly developed which lie " behind the feathers." 



It is difficult, except at the breeding season, to 

 get nearer to the magpie than eighty to a hundred 

 yards ; and, at that distance, he appears a simple 

 mixture of black and white, each colour laid on in 

 broad and effective, and, therefore, conspicuous 

 patches, much as is the case with the oyster-catcher 

 or sea-pye, the scaup and the tufted duck, the shel- 

 drake and the merganser. But take him in your 

 hand when he has just been caught, or killed, by his 

 deadly enemy the gamekeeper ; or, better still, 

 watch him from the distance of a few yards only, 

 as you can do in Norway where he is a prime 

 favourite, a chartered libertine with everybody, and, 

 indeed, is almost domesticated and observe how 

 deftly these two ground colours are intermixed, and 

 how delicately they are shot with other tints as the 

 light glances across them. The head, the neck, and 

 the upper breast are a glossy black, the prevailing 



