306 THE MAGPIE 



St James's Park. As many as five have been seen 

 on one tree. The park-keepers say they do not 

 breed there ; but it may be hoped that, before long, 

 their fortress-nest will be a familiar sight even to 

 Londoners. 



In Norway, the magpie sometimes builds her 

 nest, like the house-martin, beneath the broad 

 overhanging eaves of the houses ; and in one 

 instance, recorded by Bishop Stanley, she actually 

 built her nest in a gooseberry bush on the ground, 

 nest and bush inextricably interwoven together a 

 fortress within a fortress ; for round the whole, and 

 at a little distance from it, she erected a palisade of 

 thorns, a zareba in fact, probably intended to keep 

 children and dogs and cats at a respectful distance. 



An interesting survival of what, I believe, to 

 have been once a universal habit among magpies, 

 and to have died away, chiefly owing to the diminu- 

 tion in their numbers, may still be observed, here 

 and there, in England. It is well known that rooks 

 and starlings congregate in vast numbers, for 

 roosting purposes, in favoured spots, when the 

 breeding season is over ; each separate flock in the 

 huge parliament always retaining its identity, and 

 returning, day after day, to its usual resorts. 

 Magpies, from the nature of the case, were never 



