THE MAGPIE. 
132 
thus for a few autumnal mornings and counselling with 
each other around their abandoned and now useless 
nests, which before the return of spring are generally 
beaten from the trees, is by no means manifest to us. 
The sense of smelling seems often to supply in 
animals the want of faculties they are not gifted with ; 
and it is this power which directs them to their food 
with greater certainty, than the discernment of man 
could do. That we have every faculty given us neces- 
sary for the condition in which we are placed, is mani- 
fest; yet the mechanical talents and intuition of the 
insect, the powers that birds and beasts possess, and 
the superior acuteness of some of their senses, of which, 
perhaps, we have little conception, makes it evident 
that all created things were equally the objects of their 
Maker’s benevolence and .care ; the worm that creepeth, 
and the beast that perisheth, deserve our consideration, 
and claim from human reason mercy and compassion. 
The tall tangled hedge-row, the fir grove, or the old, 
well-wooded inclosure, constitutes the delight of the 
magpie <(corvus pica), as there alone its large and dark 
nest has any chance of escaping observation. We here 
annually deprive it of these asylums, and it leaves us ; 
but it does not seem to be a bird that increases much 
anywhere. As it generally lays eight or ten eggs, and 
is a very wary and cunning creature, avoiding all ap- 
pearance of danger, it might be supposed that it would 
yearly become more numerous. Upon particular occa- 
sions we see a few of them collect; but the general 
spread is diminished, and as population advances, the 
few that escape will retire from the haunts and perse- 
cutions of man. These birds will occasionally plunder 
the nests of some few others; and we find in early 
spring the eggs of our out-laying domestic fowls fre- 
quently dropped about, robbed of their contents. That 
the pie is a party concerned in these thefts, we cannot 
deny, but to the superior audacity of the crow we at- 
tribute our principal injury. However the magpie may 
feed on the eggs of others, it is particularly careful to 
guard its own nest from similar injuries by covering 
it with an impenetrable canopy of thorns, and is our 
