THE MAGPIE. 



Pica rustica (Scopoli). 

 {Frontispiece.) 



This handsome bird is a resident species and widely distributed in many 

 parts of the British Islands, though scarce and rapidly diminishing where game 

 preserving is general. 



Abroad it is found over the greater part of Europe, from northern Scandinavia 

 to the Mediterranean. 



The Magpie, like the Jay, breeds early in the year, usually in March, and builds 

 its large domed nest of sticks arranged on a groundwork of earth and clay with 

 a lining of rootlets or grasses, which is placed in the fork of a tree, or in some 

 tall thorn hedge. The eggs vary in number from six to nine, and are generally 

 of a pale bluish-green, speckled with umber brown. 



The food consists of grubs, eggs, young birds, rats, mice, and carrion of various 

 kinds. 



The notes of the Magpie, softer in tone than those of the Jay, are, as Macgilli- 

 vray describes them, "a sort of chuckling cry or chatter." Always shy and watch- 

 ful, and never off its guard, it frequents woods, meadows, and cultivated ground, 

 especially those fields surrounded by trees and tall hedges, to which it retreats on 

 the first suspicion of danger. 



In thick covert, if a fox be about, its presence is often betrayed by the incessant 

 chattering of the watchful bird. 



The male and female are alike in colour, though she may be a little duller. 



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