344 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Habits of the Magpie. — There is a remarkable instance of instinct 

 displayed by the common Magpie which I have not seen noticed, although 

 it has long attracted my attention, and is well known to farmers in the 

 West of Scotland. This bird may be seen each year, on the first Sunday 

 of March (old style), very busily employed carrying small twigs of branches 

 to renew its old nest or form a new one for the approaching breeding season. 

 This particular day appears to be appointed for taking formal possession of 

 the premises, as no more work whatever is done for some weeks after. The 

 instinct which enables a bird to take the sun's altitude on a particular day 

 in March is certainly a very rare gift, but any person who wishes to satisfy 

 himself of its truth, and who lives in a locality where these birds breed, has 

 only to rise early on Sunday, March 16th, this year, to see them at work 

 for himself. It would be interesting to know within what degrees of 

 latitude this particular day is observed by these birds. — Wm. Bbown. — 

 From ' Nature.' 



Instinct of Birds. — I have read Mr. Brown's letter relative to the 

 instinct shown by Magpies in Scotland as to the time for commencing their 

 nest-building, which goes so far as to assume that this particularly cunning 

 bird is capable of fixing a certain day in March (the Sunday after the 10th, 

 as I remember) as the invariable time to start the nest. And the writer 

 observes that it would be well to ascertain if difference of latitude made any 

 difference in the Magpies' calculation. Now I live in the south-east 

 of Ireland, a good many degrees south of your correspondent's Scotch 

 Magpies' locality, and it so happens that I have for the last twenty years 

 observed the nest-building of Magpies, who have enjoyed undisturbed 

 possession, and who invariably build in the trees close to my house. It is 

 curious that this colony (if a single pair may be so called) never increases. 

 Four young "Mags" are brought out every year, but though I have 

 observed congregations of ten or fourteen at times, the breeding birds never 

 exceed two. The young birds never, like Rooks, join a colony near their 

 paternal nests, but are shipped off to new localities. I could mention many 

 traits of my Magpies' instinct — " their tricks and their manners" — but will 

 confine myself to the nest-building. They never repair or re-occupy an old 

 nest. A new one is constructed every year, and always, each year, in a 

 different tree. The ucst-building is a serious labour, and takes a longtime. 

 So they begin early in February, selecting the sites often with much 

 deliberation. The work is entered on very early in the morning, and the 

 "Mags " seldom work in the daytime. About the end of March this domed 

 nest with its two openings is finished, and the laying of eggs commenced. 

 I am quite certain that the middle of March is not tlie time of beginning 

 the nest, and this is important, as the claim set up for the Magpies' 

 instinctive knowledge of dates therefore falls to the ground. I do not 

 conceive it possible to prove that in this particular Magpies have a more 



