CH. VIII.] ARE MAGPIES NOMADS? 245 
purpose, as they shew well, and are easy of imita- 
tion. Of course the closer the resemblance is, the 
better, but even if it be but rudely approximated 
to, the success of the bait is extraordinary. Four 
or five of these eggs should be placed in a sham 
or real nest on a stage made against a tree a 
few feet from the ground, leaving just room for 
the gin, which should have a little branch or two 
on either side of it, so as to bar access to the 
nest save vid the gin. The peculiar advantages 
of this plan are that it can be pursued with 
destructive effect (somewhat strange to say) all 
through the winter, when natural eggs are not 
easily attainable, and that the sham eggs can 
be carried loose in the pocket without fear of 
breaking them. 
I have occasionally seen Magpies on high, 
exposed, down-land collected together in such (for 
them) extraordinary numbers—from twenty-five to 
thirty in a flock—that I cannot but think they 
must be to a certain extent nomads, and shift 
their quarters in company, like swallows; parti- 
cularly as I am persuaded that the immediate 
neighbourhood could not, unaided, have furnished 
so many, and these flocks have, so far as I know, 
only been seen early in the Spring, long after 
