THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 159 
have a great liking for unrendered fat, and I have known them to 
mount a meatsafe, which stood on a back verandah in order to regale 
themselves on suet. 
I have mentioned their love of fun, ¢.e., in the wild estate, which 
shows itself in sundry gambols, and mirthful frolics, such as 
running round trees or stumps as if playing at hide and seek; 
darting at each other as if pretending to want to fight; or trying to 
atch another by the tail when on the wing. 
On our property we have a very nice clump of box-trees, situated 
in a sheltered valley close to the homestead. For many years we 
have used our best endeavours to protect the magpies, the effect of 
this was, that at a rough guess about two thousand of these birds 
resorted to this clump at roosting time. Some of them would 
arrive early, the last appearing about dusk. We took great pride in 
this splendid show of birds, not to mention the treat it was to go 
among them, and hear their singing, or watch their funny antics. 
They were very tame, and would peer down at us inquisitively from 
the trees. An evil ThaCe at last came for our amusing friends, the 
establishment of the Sunbury Industrial Schools, the boys of which 
initiated a system of string snaring that proved most fatal to poor 
“mag.” The number of birds diminished with fearful rapidity; and 
Ido not hesitate to affirm that were the schools still in existence, 
not a hundred birds would roost where a thousand perched of yore, 
but now the birds are beginning to make headway again. 
The magpie is accused by some persons of carrying off newly 
hatched chickens, a charge, [ think, wholly without foundation, for 
if it was properly sifted out, a marauding crow would be found to be 
the culprit, as I never obtained any direct proof that the 
magpie is guilty of the mischief. In. some isolated cases they 
certainly do pull up the young plants of a grain crop, but if these 
fields were critically examined, I think the true reason for the 
mischief would be found to be the superabundance of insect life. 
There is another fact about the magpie in its wild state worthy of 
note. Irefer to their low marriage rate. About here, taking into 
consideration the number of the birds, and the exceedingly Uae 
number of nests one finds, I have estimated that pairing is only a 
the rate of ten per cent. It appears clear to me, that when mag use 
have increased until they are on an even balance with the food 
supply of the district they inhabit, the process of reproduction, is, 
by a wise provision of Nature, reduced to prevent oyerbalancing. 
The magpie is decidedly a home-bird, and sticks to established 
beats. I have met with them in all parts, in some places, of 
course, more numerous than others. On the station where I lived 
on the Lower Murrumbidgee, a tract of about 240 square miles of 
country, not more than a score were to be met with, 
