334 CLASS AV£S. 



• 



full sight of all from the ground, but so enveloped and 

 surrounded with branches, that when the leaves appear, the 

 nest is quite concealed. It is made of small branches, well 

 interlaced together, leaving an aperture only in the side. 

 The bottom of the nest is furnished with a matting of soft 

 and flexible roots ; and although the diameter of the inside 

 of the nest does not much exceed six inches, it is upwards of 

 two feet on the outside. It is said to occupy the birds 

 two months to build this nest, and M. Vieillot has observed 

 that if the nest is destroyed, or the birds are prevented 

 from finishing it, they either content themselves with an old 

 nest of their own species, or take to an old crow''s nest, after 

 repairing the outside. The same gentleman has also noticed 

 that, at the early part of the breeding season, each pair of 

 these birds begin more nests than one, though they finish 

 that only in which the eggs are deposited. 



Ordinarily they have but one brood in a year ; but if their 

 young be destroyed, they will sometimes have a second, and 

 even a third. The eggs, seven or eight, are yellowish- white, 

 spotted with brown and grey. The male and female sit 

 alternately, and the incubation continues about fourteen 

 days. The young are born blind, and remain so several days. 

 The parents display great care of them, and continue their 

 attentions a considerable time. 



Bennefs Magpie, of which a fine specimen is in the British 

 Museum, is so named by Mr. Gray, from the donor of it to 

 that establishment. It is a very splendid bird, about the 

 size of the common magpie. The general colour of the upper 

 part is blue ; but round the eyes, on the throat, and beneath 

 it, is white. From behind the eyes descends a black, irregu- 

 lar stripe, which, passing downwards, unite and enlarge into 

 a patch ; the cheek and throat are whitish. The two middle 

 tail-feathers are nearly double the length of any of the others ; 

 the lateral feathers are graduated, and tipt with white. From 



