296 THE MAGPIE 



there is nothing new in that," exclaimed the 

 disciples; "we all know that much, and if you 

 have nothing newer to tell us, we may as well be 

 off." So the birds flew away in a huff, and to 

 this day, they have never learnt to cover over 

 their nests, because they had not the patience to 

 let the magpie, who was ready to teach them, 

 teach in her own way, by beginning at the 

 beginning. Which things are they not, for both 

 teachers and learners, an allegory? 



Sometimes, the magpie's nest will last for years, 

 and the bird return to it and rear her young therein, 

 after doing any "spring cleaning" and patching up 

 that may be needed. Generally, however, she 

 prefers to build a new nest every year, leaving 

 the old one to be occupied should it so please 

 them in successive seasons, by less skilful nest- 

 builders, such as the hobby hawk, the kestrel hawk, 

 the horned owl, or, as I found on one occasion, 

 much to my surprise and mortification, after an 

 exceptionally long and difficult climb, in a belt of 

 fir trees between Stafford and Knighton, by a 

 presumptuous, every-day starling. A magpie's 

 nest, once discovered, may thus, like the carrion 

 crow's, prove a genuine treasure-trove for years to 

 come. Such a master-builder is the bird, that she 



