286 THE MAGPIE 



energies, and he resumes his usual crawl. So was 

 it with the magpie. I managed to keep him alive 

 for a time. He became tame enough, but never 

 developed any of the amusing qualities, the powers 

 of mischief, the talking feats which characterise 

 magpies brought up from the nest. He was, 

 in fact, like so many of us, too old too old to 

 learn. 



There are few birds whose habits have changed 

 more or more rapidly, with the changing times, 

 than those of the magpie. He has learned a sure 

 mark of high intelligence how "to keep pace" 

 with them, and to adapt himself to circumstances. 

 Observers of nature, of a century or so ago, speak 

 of him, with hardly an exception, as one of the 

 most familiar and friendly of birds, fond of man and 

 of his works, and never far removed from them, 

 haunting the rickyard, searching the " mixen " for 

 food, perching on the barn top, the occasional 

 companion, and not always the enemy, of the hens, 

 the ducks, and the pigeons of the farmyard, his 

 huge nest constructed on one of the old ash trees 

 or elms which hem the homestead in, conspicuous 

 yet secure. He was, in short, in England then, 

 very much what he is in Norway now, a canny or 

 uncanny bird, who might know a little too much of 



