THE MAGPIE. 
235 
is the object of the jackdaw's visit to the backs of 
sheep and oxen : it goes there for fleece ; the 
magpie for filth. 
I cannot suppose, with some naturalists, that the 
dome of the magpie's nest is intended for a defence; 
because the hole at which the bird enters is always 
open to an enemy, while the contents of the nest 
are quite visible through the dome itself. 
The young of the magpie being hatched blind, 
the eggs are never covered when the parent bird 
leaves the nest. I am satisfied in my own mind, 
that neither the magpie, nor any other bird, can 
have the least idea that their nests will be robbed, 
up to the very moment when their eggs, or their 
young, are taken away. Did they apprehend such 
a disaster, we may be assured that their first object 
would be to build their nests in a place out of 
harm's way. Now, the magpie generally chooses 
the site for its intended incubation in a spot the 
most exposed that can possibly be imagined. It 
will continue to work at the structure of its nest, 
although we visit the nest two or three times a day r 
and it will return to the nest, and sit upon its eggs, 
after those eggs have been handled times out of 
number. Nay, more ; you may take away its own 
eggs, and substitute those of some other bird, and it 
will hatch them, and rear the produce. 
The magpie (and we may include all other birds) 
shows not that intensity of feeling for its eggs 
which it is known to have for its young. Thus, 
if you take the eggs from the nest and place them 
on the ground, the magpie will abandon them for 
