MAGPIES. 257 



where there are no trees, instead of retiring to high 

 rocks, and choosing places not easily approached, 

 they will take possession of bushes close to the very 

 doors of houses, particularly in those countries 

 where, instead of being persecuted, they are pre- 

 served, from an opinion that it is unlucky to kill 

 them. Accordingly, in Sweden and Norway, tra- 

 vellers are struck by their surprising numbers and 

 tameness, their nests being built in some low bushy 

 tree close to the cottage-doors, where they are never 

 disturbed. 



The following instance, which fell under the ob- 

 servation of a gentleman when making an excur- 

 sion in a remote and barren part of the north of 

 Scotland, not only corroborates the statement from 

 Norway and Sweden, but is attended with many 

 other interesting particulars of the sagacity shown 

 by a pair of Magpies. Observing them hopping 

 round a gooseberry bush, and flying in and out of it 

 in an extraordinary manner, he noticed the circum- 

 stance to the owners of the house in which he was, 

 who informed him that as there were no trees in 

 the neighbourhood, they had for several years built 

 their nest, and brought up their young in that bush. 

 And that foxes, cats, hawks, &c., might not inter- 

 rupt them, they had barricadoed not only the nest, 

 but the bush itself all round, with briers and thorns, 

 in a formidable manner. The materials in the inside 

 of the nest, were soft, warm, and comfortable to the 

 touch, but all round, on the outside, so rough, strong, 

 and firmly entwined with the bush, that, without a 

 hedge-knife, or something of the kind, even a man 

 could not, without much pain and trouble, get at 



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