CHAPTER XXI. 



THE MAGPIE. 



You have here a living portrait of the Magpie, sitting, so to 

 speak, on his own door-sill, and contemplating it with rather a 

 sentimental air, perhaps rather with tender admiration ; and as 

 to his dwelling, it is, we must confess, a wonderful structure — a 

 half-timbered edifice, so to speak, walled-round and roofed-in, 

 with its front-door and all complete. 



The magpie is one of our most beautiful as well as most 

 amusing and characteristic birds. He is cousin to the jackdaw, 

 and has, like him, odd ways of his own. In all countries where 

 he is found, he is just the same. An old Greek poet, who lived 

 two thousand years ago, speaks of him as a great mimic, and 

 such an inordinate talker, that, in his own satirical humour, he 

 pretends to believe that magpies were originally a family of 

 young ladies, in Macedonia, who were noted for the volubility 

 of their tongues. Handsome he is, as well as talkative, and 

 very droll and mischievous. 



Being such, we need not wonder that his nest is very original. 

 He likes to place it in a secure angle of branches, on some lofty 

 tree, as we see it here, fifty feet or so from the ground ; and 

 prefers to have it on a tree bare of branches to a considerable 

 ' height, knowing that it is then more inaccessible. He is wise 

 in all this, for its bulk being so large it is discernible to a great 



