302 THE MAGPIE 



jeopardy every hour," or that of her young? A 

 gamekeeper will sometimes fire one barrel of his 

 gun right up through the nest, hoping to make 

 short work of her ; but, at that height, the nest, 

 owing to its " armour-plating," its successive layers 

 of sticks and plaster, often turns out to be shot- 

 proof. Out dashes the bird, and dropping down 

 perpendicularly ten feet or so, as if shot, flurries or 

 misleads her foe, and then, putting rapidly the 

 trunk of the tree between herself and him, often 

 escapes the second barrel unhurt. Unfortunately, 

 it is as easy to poison or trap a magpie as it is 

 difficult to shoot her. Her dead body forms one of 

 the commonest and most conspicuous trophies of 

 the gamekeeper's ghastly gibbet ; and so it comes 

 about that whole estates in Dorset and in other 

 counties, and many wild tracts of moorland and 

 woodland which are admirably suited to her habits, 

 and whose charms would be indefinitely enhanced 

 by her presence, seldom catch a glimpse of her 

 graceful movements or her exquisite plumage. 



There is nothing in Nature quite like the magpie's 

 chatter or clatter of short quick notes. Mr Hudson 

 compares it to the sound of a wooden rattle or to 

 the bleating of a goat, with a dash of the human 

 voice the guttural voice of the Negro thrown in. 



