THE CHAFFINCH. 



279 



pheasants are crowing in every wood around ; nor 

 do the hoarse croakings of the carrion crows, or the 

 frequent chatterings of the magpies, cause me any 

 apprehensions that there will be a deficiency in the 

 usual supply of game. 



The chief way to encourage birds is to forbid the 

 use of fire-arms in the place of their resort. I have 

 done so here; and to this precaution I chiefly owe my 

 unparalleled success. We have a tame magpie in 

 the stable yard. It is the same bird that is mentioned 

 in the paper on the stormcock, p. 254. Being one of 

 the tribe whose plumage in the nest has the colours 

 of that in after life, you cannot decide whether it is 

 a male or a female. However, it has paired with a 

 wild one ; and although the wariness of the magpie 

 is proverbial, nevertheless this strange bird will ac- 

 tually come and feed within a few yards of us, without 

 betraying any symptoms of fear. 



For these two years, a Canada goose and gander, 

 attracted hither by the quiet which this place affords, 

 have made their nest on a little island of alder trees. 

 Although the female has laid five eggs each year, 

 still there has been no brood. The gander seems 

 to have been aware that something was going on 

 wrong in his establishment, for this spring the old 

 gentleman has taken care to introduce an extra 

 female. Were Ovid, that excellent ornithologist, 

 now on earth, he would tell us that this he-goose, 

 dissatisfied with our law of monogamy, has been as 

 far as Constantinople, to buy a license for a plurality 

 of wives. 



Amongst all the pretty warblers which flit from 



T 4 



