102 THE COMMON MAGPIE. 



it is vain to think of it, for with fury in her eye, bristled plumage, and loud 

 clamour, headlong rushes the hen, overturning two of her younglings, when 

 the enemy suddenly wheels round, avoiding the encounter, and flies off after 

 his mate. 



There again, you perceive them in the meadow, as they walk about, with 

 elevated tails, looking for something eatable, although apparently with little 

 success. By the hedge afar off are two bo}^s with a gun, endeavouring to 

 creep up to a flock of Plovers on the other side. But the Magpies have 

 observed them, and presently rising fly directly over the field, chattering 

 vehemently, on which the whole flock takes to wing, and the disappointed 

 sportsmen sheer off in another direction. 



The food of the Magpie consists of testaceous mollusca, slugs, larvae, 

 worms, young birds, eggs, small quadrupeds, carrion, sometimes grain and 

 fruits of different kinds, in search of which it frequents the fields, hedges, 

 thickets, and orchards, occasionally visits the farm-yard, prowls among the 

 stacks, perches on the house-top, whence it sallies at times, and examines the 

 dunghill and places around. Although it searches for larvae and worms in 

 the ploughed fields, it never ventures, like the Rook, and several species 

 of Gull, to follow the plough as it turns over each successive furrow. It 

 has been accused of picking the eyes of lambs and sickly sheep, I think 

 with injustice; but it sometimes carries off a chicken or duckling, and sucks 

 an egg that may have been dropt abroad. 



It is extremely shy and vigilant in the vicinity of towns, where it is much 

 molested, but less so in country places, although even there it is readily 

 alarmed. When one pursues it openly, it flits along the walls and hedges, 

 shifts from tree to tree, and at length flies off to a distance. Yet it requires 

 all its vigilance to peserve its life; for, as it destroys the eggs and young of 

 game birds, it is keenly pursued by keepers and sportsmen, so that one 

 might marvel to find it maintaining its ground as a species, and yet it is not 

 apparently diminishing in most parts of the country. • • 



On the ground it generally walks in the same manner as the Crows, but 

 occasionally leaps in a sidelong direction. The sounds which it emits are a 

 sort of chuckling cry or chatter, which it utters when alarmed, as well as 

 when it wishes to apprize other birds of danger. On the appearance of a 

 fox, a cat, or other unfriendly animal, it never ceases hovering about it, and 

 alarming the neighbourhood by its cries, until the enemy has slunk away 

 out of sight. 



It generally keeps in pairs all the year round, accompanies its young for 

 some weeks after they first come abroad, and after the breeding season 

 retires at night to the copses or woods, where sometimes a considerable 

 number meet together. It begins to construct its nest early in March, 



