A Search for Food. 1 1 7 



descends to the ground. His ash-tree, you must understand, 

 grows close to, and in part overshadows, a farmyard ; so now 

 he is on ground which, as is customary in such places, is not 

 over clean ; therefore, lifting up his tail to prevent it being 

 soiled or wet, as the farmer's wife might hold up her Sunday 

 gown, and raising his body as high as possible, he walks a few 

 paces, and, spying an earth-worm half out of his hole, drags it 

 forth by a sudden jerk, breaks it in pieces, and swallows it. 

 Now, under the hedge, he has found a snail, which he will pre- 

 sently pick out of its shell, as an old woman would a peri- 

 winkle. But now something among the bushes has startled 

 him, and he springs lightly upwards, chattering the while, to 

 regain his favourite tree. It is a cat, which, not less frightened 

 than himself, for both are intent on mischief, runs off towards 

 the barn. The magpie again descends, steps slowly over the 

 grassy margin of the yard, looking from side to side, stops, 

 listens, advances rapidly by a succession of leaps, and en- 

 counters a whole brood of chickens, with their mother at their 

 heels. If she had not been there he would have had a delicious 

 feast of one of those chickens ; but he dare not think of such a 

 thing now, for, with fury in her eye, bristled plumage, and loud 

 clamour, the hen rushes forward at him, overturning two of her 

 younglings, and the enemy, suddenly wheeling round to avoid 

 the encounter, flies off to his mate. 



"There again you perceive them in the meadow, as they 

 walk about with their elevated tails, looking for something eat- 

 able. By the hedge, afar off, are two boys, with a gun, endea- 

 vouring to creep up to a flock of plovers on the other side. 

 But the magpies see them, for there are not many things which 



