284 THE MAGPIE 



colour of most of the crow tribe. The secondary 

 feathers of the wing and the back are also black, but 

 resplendent with bands of bright green, shading off 

 into purple, blue, and deeper green. The lower breast 

 and the under parts are pure white of the softest 

 texture, and so are the graceful inner webs of the 

 flight feathers. 



Even thus far, the magpie will strike you as a 

 bird of almost matchless beauty, but its greatest and 

 most conspicuous ornament of all is, its tail. The 

 tail is considerably longer than the whole of the 

 rest of his body, beak and all, and when the bird 

 throws it jauntily upwards to keep it out of the 

 damp grass, or uses it to help him steer his way in 

 his wavering, uncertain flight from plantation to 

 plantation, it expands into the loveliest and most 

 exquisitely shaped of fans. The two centre feathers 

 are the longest, and of exactly equal length, while 

 four others on each side shelve off in gradually 

 descending scale, the whole of them aglow with 

 half the colours of the rainbow. 



The eyes of the magpie are of a moderate size, 

 but bright as bright can be ; and its large and well- 

 formed nostrils, covered, like those of the raven, with 

 reversed feathers or bristles, doubtless, help him 

 much to discover his lurking prey. The beak is 



