THE MAGPIE. 



237 



birds, where the brilliant plumage obtains before 

 the first moulting. 



The sight of a magpie always gives me pleasure; 

 its long tail, and its distinct markings of white 

 and black, having a beautiful effect as it darts 

 through the air. You may know this bird at a 

 very great distance, either on the ground, or in a 

 tree, by the frequent and brisk movement of its 

 tail ; always up and down, never sideways. 



The magpie seems to have found out that it has 

 at least one friend left in our part of the country. 

 Last year I had thirty-four nests, all of which 

 ushered their young into the world at large; 

 making, on an average of five to the nest, including 

 the parent birds, 238 individuals ; an increase quite 

 sufficient, one would think, to supply all the wise 

 men of the county with any quantity of omens. 

 The name of wise man, in Yorkshire, is always 

 given to one who professes to deal in the black art. 

 Even well-educated people of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury go to him, in order to recover things lost ; or 

 to be put on the right scent, if a cow, or horse, or 

 pig, or relative, be missing. 



Magpies are social, though not gregarious in the 

 strictest sense of the word. In places where they 

 are beyond the reach of molestation, you may see 

 them in little parties of fifteen or twenty together, 

 flitting from tree to tree in noisy conversation. 

 Sometimes they will rise to a great height in the 

 air, passing through it with a velocity which seems 

 hitherto to have escaped the notice of naturalists. 

 Like all other birds in a wild state, magpies 



