THE CHAFFINCH. 
27'9 
'pheasants are crowing in every wood around ; nor 
do the hoarse eroakings 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 w^arblers which flit from 
T 4 
