Birds. 8953 
same spring I had a tame magpie, in a large cage on my lawn; a pair of wild birds 
came down to it daily, and endeavoured to enter the cage, but, as the prisoner could 
not get out and they could not get in, it terminated by their building a nest and 
bringing up a brood in a large fir-tree in the garden, and, since then, I have had one 
or two nests yearly; by this means I have had an opportunity of watching their habits 
very closely: I also never allow, in my garden, a nest of any bird to be disturbed ; 
so that yearly I have the nightingale, whitethroat, wren, robin, missel thrush, song 
thrush, blackbird, tomtit, longtailed tit, greenfinch, chaffinch, yellowhammer, starling, 
hedgesparrow, house sparrow, magpie, &c.; and on my lawn I have yearly brought up 
pheasants and paruidges. I have, moreover, inserted earthenware pipes in the walls, 
to induce the birds to remain with me and build; by this means I have been enabled 
to watch over them most satisfactorily during incubation, to feed them on their nests, 
and even on one occasion to move the nest, in a rose bush, without the old bird ulti- 
mately forsaking it. Now this has been done by rendering the birds familiar to my 
approach and voice. Having, then, watched over many nests for years, I am prepared 
to say that the magpie is not so destructive to eggs and young birds as is generally 
believed, for I have not missed one bird, or one egg from any nest to which my especial 
attention has been directed ; therefure, although I do not say the magpie will not 
steal a young bird, or egg, or a few grains of wheat when exposed to view, what I do 
maintain is founded upon close observation, that the magpie is not only one of our hand- 
somest and most interesting birds, but that he is one our greatest benefactors ; for let 
any one who has the opportunity examine the surfacé of the ground under a magpie’s 
nest, and he will be astonished to find numerotis pellets, about three-quarters of an 
inch long, and nearly half an inch in diameter, which have been cast up from the 
crop, and composed almost entirely of the undigested hard wing-cases of small beetles 
—a class of insects injurious both in the imago and larva state: many of these pellets 
I have placed before the Natural History Society. Again, I am prepared to state that 
I have never found any portion of the eggs of other birds under the trees where the 
magpies build in my garden. I have found four heads of mice, and once that of a 
young mole; and although I am aware that the rook, magpie, &c., are what we may 
almost term omnivorous, under certain circumstances, still the immense amount of 
good these birds do is incalculable, for they are in general insectivorous,—that i is, they 
feed upon what is usually termed grubs, the larve of beetles and other insects so 
highly injurious to our crops. Again, with regard to the rook, two years since when 
returning from Ramsgate I beheld a piteous sight—nine rooks were lying dead in a 
field, and several more were dying; ail from the effect of poisoned grain. Some years 
since a friend of mine, in Bedfordshire, imagined that his magnificent rookery was an 
evil to him, and that the birds did him considerable damage ; in a thoughtless moment 
he sent his order forth, and every engine was employed to destroy the poor birds ; this 
was so effectually done, that in a very short time but a poor wreck was left. The next 
year not a bird was allowed to build, but a fearful day of reckoning came ; for the 
third year the wireworm, the larva of the cockchaffer, and other crop-destroying insects, 
abounded to an alarming extent, and then, too late, his eyes were opened to the folly 
he had committed, and it was years before he could restore his rookery. Now, with all 
these birds in my garden, if the theory were correct of the great harm they do, I 
should not have been able to preserve any fruit, but the contrary has been the case. 
I have had moderate crops of most things, and have had nearly always some to spare; 
‘a net cast over my strawberry-beds and bushes, when the fruit is ripening, is my 
VOL. XXII. N 
