FOX AND MAGPIE 301 



with her long tail, longer even, in proportion, than 

 Reynard's brush, when she is sitting for weeks con- 

 tinuously except when her faithful husband takes 

 turns with her upon her eggs ? She cannot carry 

 it straight out behind her, for the cup of the nest 

 is too narrow, neither can she thrust it through the 

 opening, for that is too high for her to reach ; 

 moreover, she always prefers to sit with her face 

 towards the doorway, ready to escape at a moment's 

 notice. She probably keeps it turned straight up, 

 as she does when she is stepping gingerly, in 

 search of food, through high and wet grass, anxious 

 lest one single feather in her lovely plumage should 

 be soiled or out of place. When she is building or 

 laying, it is difficult to find her at home, she slips 

 off at the first alarm ; but when once she has begun 

 to sit, it is as difficult to get her out of the nest, as 

 it was before to find her in it. " Her strength," 

 and safety, she thinks, and rightly thinks, as does a 

 squatting covey of partridge, "is to sit still." 

 Repeated blows of a stout oak stick on the trunk 

 below often fail to dislodge her. I have, many 

 times, climbed halfway up the tree, and, on one 

 occasion, have even touched the nest itself, before 

 she went off. Is she more anxious about her own 

 life, which, indeed, at this time of year, is "in 



