A BIRD-FABLE. 
433 
late Miss Martineau. The nest of the tiny, golden-crested wi^en is 
more complete, and is larger than that of the common wren. As to 
the water-wagtail, it is almost as difficult to find his nest as to capture 
its owner. The usual locale is a disused lime-kiln or a leafy hollow, 
always near water. The sparrow builds beneath the eaves of house or 
barn, in the gutter, the chimney, or anywhere else near the house of 
man. 
" The lark," it is said, " is the youngest apprentice among the bird- 
masons. The few blades of grass that he puts together on the ground 
look more like the lair of some small animal than like a nest. But 
the magpie is grand master of the craft. Once upon a time he 
WAGTAILS. 
undertook to initiate the rook into some of its higher secrets. When 
the lower part of the nest was made, the rook, seeing it to be so 
far very like his own, said, in his solemn, conceited way, ' I see 
nothing wonderful in all this; I knew it all before.' 'Well, if so, be 
off to do it; you want no teaching,' said the magpie, in a rage, 
and would never after show him how to roof a nest or put in a 
doorway, to floor it with clay, or to carpet it with hair and wool. 
In Ireland, magpies are called Protestant birds, because they only 
came there in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and because they are 
chiefly found in the chicken -rearing, English -peopled parts of the 
island." 
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