THE MAGPIE. 151 
To see the full beauty of this grand bird on the wing, one must be behind 
it, as with buoyant but somewhat jerky flight, it floats down some broad pheasant 
drive, exhibiting its pied wings and superb tail to perfection; it however rarely 
remains long in view, its aerial excursions being generally of short duration. 
Although fond of woodland and forest, the Magpie is not strictly confined to 
them, for it often wanders through well timbered valleys, or even over moorland ; 
whilst in the pastures it may not unfrequently be observed upon the backs of 
feeding cattle, searching for ticks and maggots. Referring to this habit Lord 
Lilford observes :—‘‘I am assured by an experienced tenant-farmer in our neighbour- 
hood that he considers this remedy worse than the disease, as the Magpies in the 
search for maggots acquire a taste for beef, and cause hideous sores which are 
difficult to treat.” 
The Magpie is at times both restless and noisy, but chiefly when aware of 
the approach of man whom it has learnt from sad experience to look upon with 
suspicion. Naturally less shy than the Jay, it would doubtless soon be confiding 
if mankind would but treat it more gently: it is indeed an ascertained fact, that 
wherever it is not persecuted, this bird commonly builds its nest close to the 
habitations of men, and in most conspicuous places. Even where it is not looked 
upon with favour this is sometimes the case, for in 1884, I noticed the unmistak- 
able nest of this species at the top of a lofty elm-tree within a hundred yards of 
the house in which I was staying, at Upchurch, near Newington, Kent. The tree 
formed one of a row along the end of a field, and quite close to the main-line of 
the Chatham and Dover Railway. I also saw the nest close to the little village 
of Bobbing in a small spinney. 
Although half afraid to trust one, and ever on the alert, the Magpie often 
keeps but a short distance ahead as one passes through its haunts, either in the 
trees above, or on the ground; at one moment it will be peering and chattering 
from a branch, the tail rising and falling, or opening and shutting, after the 
manner of the South American Jays; now it will drop buoyantly down to the 
scrub, whence it will appear upon the path, and then for a short space flit down 
the same to rise again to a branch and repeat the whole performance. 
The Magpie is single-brooded and breeds early, usually constructing its nest 
towards the end of March, though sometimes as late as May, and most frequently 
placing it in the outer branches, though less often near the highest point of the 
main stem: sometimes, however, tall, or even low hedges as well as thorn-bushes 
are selected as a building site. J. B. Pilley, (Zoologist 1891, p. 352,) observes 
that, when he was a boy, he and his companions believed that there were two 
species of Magpies, one building in a tree, the other in a hedge, and he says :— 
