i 4 8 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



magpie, do not really give a correct idea of it. 

 Quite independently of the flashing tones of colour 

 I have mentioned, the white portions of the plum- 

 age show pearly greys as the bird, in its ever-active 

 movements, causes the white edges to overlap the 

 dark parts of the feathering. The special magpies 

 which were in my mind's eye as I wrote the above 

 are naturally precious creatures in the eyes of the 

 children of those sportsmen who have so wisely 

 and kindly provided for them a sanctuary, where 

 the war of extermination could not reach them. 



My readers can easily see, I fancy, that our wilder 

 birds have been the chief objects of my own per- 

 sonal study ; and this has been from choice. Dur- 

 ing half a century of close observation I have seen 

 strange changes take place ; and the rapidity of 

 these, when once started, has been most aston- 

 ishing. Money, backed by keen enterprise, will do 

 wonders ; and these have been the real factors in 

 the extermination of a few, and the increase of some 

 other species in certain districts. Some species 

 favour cultivation; to others it is inimical. 



Trees have been planted on bare hillsides where, 

 in the days of my youth, only ragged stumpy thorns 



