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picked up. He not only learns but takes pleasure 

 in learning and practises with the utmost assiduity, 

 till practice makes him perfect. It is well known 

 that a magpie who cannot master a difficult word, 

 will sometimes die of grief. A word which has not 

 been often repeated to him is apt to slip his memory, 

 and if while trying to recover it, he happens to hear 

 it again, he is overjoyed. If he is not remarkable for 

 his beauty, neither is there aught that is common 

 looking about him. He has enough to be proud of 

 in his power of imitating human speech. Pliny 

 then goes on to remark, with not a little truth, that 

 it is only those birds which feed on acorns that are 

 clever talkers, and that the time to learn, if they 

 are to learn at all, is limited to the first two years. 

 The jay, garrulus glandarius, whom the poets call, 

 now " painted," now "saucy," now " prating, " now 

 "scorning," is an apt illustration of his remarks. 

 Never keep a magpie in a cage ; it will cramp 

 every energy of her body and of her mind. Her 

 tail, which is her greatest ornament, will be ruined, 

 and a magpie without her tail is only a ghastly 

 parody of herself. Keep her out of the house, by all 

 means, for she has a well-developed taste for silver 

 spoons and sixpences ; and if, she ever happens to 

 find a dressing-case open, she will ransack its 



