330 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the opinion of its owners, who a little before I left made a fresh 
joint attack upon one of them in particular. The latter, in 
defending himself, made a sort of backward movement, jerking 
his wings; so, at least, it appeared to me. At any rate, he 
jerked his wings, and the attacking Magpie swerved off, as 
though they were his beak, whether or not it was only that that 
he feared, as seems most probable. 
May 8rd.—Got into place to watch the building of my last- 
found nest in the fir-tree at 4.40 p.m., the Crows not being then 
about. 
4.46.—A visit—single—direct flight on to nest. 
4.49.—Second bird flies on to nest with stick, just leaves it, 
and goes. 
The first-come bird, therefore, is still on the nest, and | now 
see him there. “I did not notice a stick in his bill when he came. 
If he had one it was small. 
4.57.—One of the birds—as I supposed, the first owner—off, 
but to my surprise the other follows. He had evidently returned 
without my seeing him, having been concealed, I suppose, by 
the gloom of the fir-tree, as he flew in from behind it. A bird 
now flies in again, and is off the next minute. 
There is now an interval, both birds sitting quietly in an 
adjacent tree and preening themselves. This tree is very little 
removed from the one in which there is the Magpie’s nest, but 
there is no interference from that quarter. Though close, 
the insufferable degree of proximity has not, it appears, been 
reached. 
5.20.—One of the birds now begins twig-pulling in the tree 
he is in. He soon gets one, but, for some time, sits perched 
with it in his bill. I lose him for a moment then, then all 
at once there is an “‘arrr, arrr, arrr,”’ and both are in flight, the 
one still carrying his twig. In a minute or two they are back 
again—the twig still held—and perched, side by side, in the tree 
next to that in which they were before. 
5.32.—The bird with the twig flies away, still keeping it, 
leaving the other one sitting. He passes over the nesting-tree 
to a line of trees some way off, where I lose him, but in less than 
three minutes he comes flying up again—stick and all—as the 
sitting bird ‘‘arrrs,” and again they sit side by side. Soon both 
