116 CORVIIhE. 



close about their doors, and sometimes walking inside their 

 houses. It abounds in the town of Drontheim, making its 

 nest upon the churches arid warehouses. We saw as many 

 as a dozen of them at one time seated upon the gravestones 

 in the churchyard. Few farmhouses are without several of 

 them breeding under the eaves, their nest supported by the 

 spout. In some trees close to houses their nests were 

 several feet in depth, the accumulation of years of undis- 

 turbed and quiet possession." 



" The inhabitants of Norway pleased us very much by 

 the kind feeling which they seemed to entertain towards 

 them, as well as to most species of birds, often expressing a 

 hope that we would not shoot many. Holes are cut in 

 many of their buildings for the admission of some, and 

 pieces of wood are nailed up against them to support 

 the nests of others. At Christmas, that the birds may 

 share their festivities and enjoyments, they place a sheaf of 

 corn at the end of their houses," 



Fynes Moryson, who wrote a short account of Iceland 

 about 1602, states, "We have here no chattering Pie; " 

 but Sir William Hooker, in his tour in 1809, remarks that 

 a tradition in Iceland says, the Magpie was imported into 

 that country by the English out of spite. 



Our Magpie is a native of the United States and North 

 America from Louisiana* to the Fur-countries,-)- it exists 

 in the Rocky Mountains^ also, and has been found in that 

 direction as far as Kamtschatka. 



To return to the central portions of Europe : the Magpie 

 is there common. Southward, it is found in Portugal, 

 Spain, Provence, Italy, Sicilyj Malta, the Morea, Smyrna, 

 Aleppo, in the country between the Black and the Caspian 

 seas, and in the southern part of Russia and Siberia. East- 



* Audubon. f Richardson. Nuttall. 



