Are Magpies Oregarious ? 89 



abnormal mildness of the weather, the Magpies mistak- 

 ing it for spring. When spring comes, there will be 

 nothing strange in it, as then these birds congregate in 

 large assemblages, often of twenty or more, for courtship 

 and marriage; and when married, models of constancy 

 they become. 



But, apart from their association at pairing time, and 

 in the fields, I have evidence, lately gained, of their 

 tendency to gregariousness, which I believe to be their 

 real habit when in sufficient numbers to indulge in it. 

 Three weeks ago my gun-man, instructed to get me a pair 

 for purposes of scientific examination, found nigh a score 

 of them in the same night roosting-place — for the time 

 was just before nightfall. Nor were they roosted on tall 

 timber, but among young oaks not much larger than 

 apple trees, with the trunks ivy-entwined, and last year's 

 leaves still on. A copse it is, of about an acre in extent, 

 standing solitary and apart, though between two exten- 

 sive tracts of woodland, and scarce two hundred yards 

 from the edge of either. Why this preference for the 

 copse as a roosting-place, over the continuous woods, is 

 of itself a singular circumstance, and one I am unable to 

 explain. Whether a better shelter or not, the latter 

 would certainly have been a safer one, notably in the 

 present instance, since my man had no difficulty in 

 bringing down a pair of the birds as they screamed and 

 fluttered among the branches such a little way above 

 his head. 



The Magpie, which I believe to be the temperate-zone 

 representative of the tropical Birds of Paradise, is pos- 

 sessed of a beauty little known and too little appreciated. 

 Viewed from a distance, only black and white colours in 

 severe contrast are distinguishable j but taken in hand. 



