192 OMNIVOR.E. 



manor, parson of the parish, nor (where these are effective) 

 " bell, book, and candle," can cast out the evil spirit of the 

 odd magpie ! 



These circumstances are not mentioned with a view to 

 propagate superstition, and far less with a view to ridicule 

 it ; for ridicule is the hammer with which, as a nail in a sure 

 place, it is driven home and rivetted. These superstitions 

 are weeds ; but in every field of nature, weeds are the sure 

 sign of fertility, and the certain guarantee that culture shall 

 produce a crop valuable in proportion as the weeds are rank. 

 The magpie is a very active and a very clever bird, having 

 instincts which are very readily affected by changes of cir- 

 cumstances too minute for ordinary human observation ; and 

 therefore there is no question that, properly studied, the 

 magpie would be a capital index to many of the phenomena 

 of nature a philosophical instrument, more delicate and 

 more varied in its uses than any that man can construct ; 

 and if people knew but how to consult their magpies (and it 

 is a result within the legitimate province of observation), 

 they would find these better guides to the weather, the 

 heat, the moisture, and the motions of the air, and the 

 effects of these upon the earth, than any apparatus formed 

 of dead matter. There is nothing so susceptible as life, and 

 the magpie is probably one of the most susceptible of its 

 winged forms. 



It chooses the thick tree, because that can best support 

 and conceal its large nest, just as the eagle and the raven 

 choose the cleft and ledge of the rock. 



Most birds, by the way, nestle above their food ; and 

 though the magpie does not build so high as the rook, it 

 builds higher than any of those birds whose nests it gene- 

 rally plunders. The magpie is one of the most villanous 

 plunderers of nests, not hesitating to invade those of do- 

 mestic poultry, especially when it has young. It seizes the 



