CHAPTER XXIX. 
THE END. 
“ TT AVE you found any more birds, Miss Har- 
J— L son?” asked her little pupils one evening 
with great interest. “We thought we’d had the 
last of ’em.” 
“ The last of the home birds, I think,” was the 
reply, “ but I found to-day something about nest- 
building that I felt sure you would like to hear : it 
is called ‘A Legend of the Magpie.’” 
“Magpies are very funny, aren’t they?” asked 
Malcolm. “Don’t we have them here?” 
“ Only in the western part of the country,” re- 
plied Miss Harson ; “ so that I did not think it 
necessary to include it in our home birds. It is 
particularly an English bird, and when we come 
to study the birds of other countries we shall have 
a great deal to say about it. Besides its talking 
powers and its wonderful instinct, the most remark- 
able thing in connection with it is its nest, which is 
built iru the strongest manner of hawthorn branches, 
with the thorns sticking outward, and a regular can- 
307 
