NOTES AND QUERIES. 395 
whilst nothing points in the contrary direction. If it is contended 
that, for all this, the two sexes do incubate, actual affirmative evidence 
in favour of this contention should be adduced. Brehm, I believe, 
was of an opposite opinion. 
Both Crows and Magpies are abundant in France, and I should 
like here to say (as a matter of justice as well as of field natural 
history) that, though my observations were extended through the 
whole spring and early summer, they furnished little or no evidence 
that either of them spent much time in searching for the nests 
of small birds, and, moreover, the quickness with which in a country 
where one can go anywhere they disappeared through the inter- 
vention of trees, copses, &e., the difficulty of holding them in chase, 
or of keeping any bird, not more or legs stationary, or not in the open, 
in view for any length of time, convinced me that mere general 
assertions to this effect ought to be received with great caution, or 
rather, should not be attended to. Crows and Magpies, whenever I 
saw them—and I was always seeing them—were not occupied with, 
nor did they appear to be thinking about, small birds or their nests, 
but they constantly patrolled the land, looking about for anything 
they could find upon it. Adding to the time thus spent, that which 
was socially, domestically, or quiescently occupied, little appeared to 
me to be left over for those organized tree-to-tree or bush-to-bush 
birdsnesting hunts, which in books are so frequent, but which: I 
never once clearly saw ; nests, of course, are not the only things in 
trees. One thing was very evident, viz. that the laws of Nature, 
without man’s disturbing influence, allowed of an abundance of 
Crows and Magpies (as also of Jays), and at the same time, likewise, 
of an abundance of small birds. I also came to the conclusion that 
from the point of view of the peasant proprietor (who gave no visible 
sign of hostility) neither of these species was a pest or a nuisance, 
and a naturalized English farmer corroborated this, and stated that the 
French Government had at one time thought of thinning the number 
of Magpies, but abandoned the idea, as they could not find out that 
they did any harm. My informant had no quarrel with them, and 
told me he loved the birds. Of course, with the substitution of land- 
lordism and the game laws for peasant proprietorship all this would 
be altered. With an artificial abundance of large ground-laying 
birds, a relish for their eggs and, to some extent, their young must 
be acquired, and two species which, together, add enormously both 
to the homely charm and gay adornment of the countryside, would 
become pests to pests, and a nuisance to what is a nuisance. And, 
