MAGPIE. 565 



to take wing again as you approach. Upon alighting it elevates its tail, 

 which is often spread out like a fan and repeatedly wafted gently up and 

 down. Even when no danger threatens, the Magpie is a restless bird, inces- 

 santly on the move — now down upon the ground or in the lower bushes, 

 then up in the topmost branches, every movement usually accompanied by 

 chattering cries. 



Magpies often breed year after year in the same place. My earliest 

 recollections of bird-nesting are associated with a pair of Magpies which 

 bred every year in my father's garden. He was very fond of them ; and 

 in order to secure the young from being stolen by the children of the 

 woolcombers in the neighbouring village, he used to send the under groom 

 up the tree and have the young Magpies hung up in a cage in an old 

 oak tree, where their parents regularly fed them — the right of property in 

 birds in a cage being respected by these embryo poachers, who naturally 

 looked upon trespass in pursuit of Magpies or game as an innocent crime. 

 After many years'" observation my father came to the conclusion that these 

 Magpies were weather-wise, and that if they built their nest in a thick 

 sycamore we might confidently calculate upon a stormy spring, whilst the 

 position of the nest near the slender top of a lofty poplar was a sure indi- 

 cation of fine weather. 



Although in the British Islands the Magpie is found almost everywhere, 

 its breeding-grounds are to a certain extent restricted. To almost every 

 variety of scenery Magpies lend a charm ; but it is only in the wooded 

 districts that their nests ma}' be found in any great numbers. Sometimes, 

 however, the bird will rear its ^^oung in hedges or in trees standing alone ; 

 or on the wide-stretching lonely moor its nest may not unfrequently be 

 observed in the stunted biishes that, in spite of wind and storm, manage 

 to take root in the scanty soil. But these places are exceptional. Almost 

 every forest tree is used by this bird for a nesting-place. The towering 

 oaks and elms in the wooded solitudes — the pines, the firs, and the alders, 

 either in plantations or standing alone — the graceful silver birches, the 

 mountain-ash, or the more lowly liawthorn, holly, and crab-tree — all in 

 turn are selected to hold its large and bulky nest. More rarely it will 

 build in tangled thickets ; and in Norwegian Lapland, where the bird is 

 protected, I have seen its nest under the eaves of houses, in heaps of 

 brushwood, and in low bushes. 



The Magpie is an early breeder, and begins to build towards the latter 

 end of March or early in April. It probably pairs for life. The nest is 

 usually placed on one of the topmost branches, and seldom near the trunk, 

 unless in its most slender part. Here, in a suitable fork, the sticks are 

 arranged which form the outside of the nest. These sticks are cemented 

 with mud and clay, which also forms the first lining to the stick-built 

 nest. More sticks are now added, until the nest itself is covered with a 



