THE CHAFFINCH. 279 



pheasants are crowing in every wood around ; nor 

 do the hoarse croakings of the carrion crows, or the 

 frequent chatterings of the magpies, cause me any 

 apprehensions that there will be a deficiency in the 

 usual supply of game. 



The chief way to encourage birds is to forbid the 

 use of fire-arms in the place of their resort. I have 

 done so here ; and to this precaution I chiefly owe 

 my unparalleled success. We have a tame magpie 

 in the stable yard. It is the same bird that is men- 

 tioned in the paper on the stormcock, p. 254. Being 

 one of the tribe whose plumage in the nest has the 

 colours of that in after life, you cannot decide 

 whether it is a male or a female. However, it has 

 paired with a wild one ; and although the wariness 

 of the magpie is proverbial, nevertheless this strange 

 bird will actually come and feed within a few yards 

 of us, without betraying any symptoms of fear. 



For these two years, a Canada goose and gander, 

 attracted hither by the quiet which this place 

 affords, have made their nest on a little island of 

 alder trees. Although the female has laid five eggs 

 each year, still there has been no brood. The 

 gander seems to have been aware that something 

 was going on wrong in his establishment, for this 

 spring the old gentleman has taken care to introduce 

 an extra female. Were Ovid, that excellent orni- 

 thologist, now on earth, he would tell us that this 

 he-goose, dissatisfied with our law of monogamy, 

 has been as far as Constantinople to buy a licence 

 for a plurality of wives. 



Amongst all the pretty warblers which flit from 



