LESSER WHITE-BACKED MAGPIE IN TASMANIA. 431 



occasion a Sparrow-Hawk (Accipiter cirrhocephalus) was too 

 clever for its tormentors. Some half dozen Magpies were 

 chasing a Hawk away from a tree which contained a nest and young 

 birds, when suddenly the Hawk doubled and, darting straight 

 for the tree, plucked a young bird from out the nest and sailed 

 triumphantly away. Near a certain farm in the country stands 

 a giant eucalypt, in which a pair of Magpies nest year after year. 

 When there are young in the nest the old birds are very savage, 

 darting down with angry cries on every one passing under 

 the tree. 



A Magpie makes a most entertaining and useful pet, though 

 after a time it becomes very mischievous, and delights in pulling 

 up freshly-set plants. I have known one, after watching, say, 

 turnips or onions being thinned out, to go on with the thinning 

 until not a plant remained. 



Another bird used to watch the operation of setting young 

 plants very intently, and as soon as one's back was turned com- 

 mence pulling them all up. As a counterpoise against these 

 bad traits, there is the good one of being a very useful destroyer 

 of insects of all kinds. This bird is one of our best songsters, 

 its voice being very powerful and pleasing. Early on a summer's 

 morning nothing is more delightful than to hear a number of Mag- 

 pies pouring forth their melodious song while swaying on the top- 

 most twigs of some lofty tree. Morning and evening are the times 

 when most singing is done. It is no uncommon thing to hear 

 them burst into song in the middle of some bright moonlight night, 

 and after having successfully routed a Hawk is another occasion 

 for a triumphal song. The wing-power of this species is very 

 great ; it can dash through space with a marvellous rapidity. 

 Long distances (comparatively speaking) are traversed without 

 a perceptible movement of the outstretched wings. 



Launceston, Tasmania. 



