MAGPIE. 
313 
opening' is by no means apparent, though in some instances the twigs 
may appear more loosely woven than in others ; but seldom so much 
so, I think, as to permit a passage to the bird. 
There is considerable discrepancy in the account given by naturalists 
of the haunts of the Magpie. The tall tangled hedge-row,” says 
Mr. Knapp, the fir-grove, or the old well-wooded enclosure, consti- 
tutes its delight, as there alone its large dark nest has any chance of 
escaping observation.” ^ It always,” says Jennings, “ builds a soli- 
tary nest, either in a thorn-bush, or on some lofty elm, and sometimes 
on an apple-tree. It does not often build very near dwelling-houses ; 
but a remarkable exception to this has lately occurred in Somersetshire, 
at Huntspill : a Magpie not only having built its nest on a tree a very 
short distance from a dwelling-house, but occupying the same nest two 
years successively.” ^ 
Wilson, on the other hand, speaking, I apprehend, of its habits in 
Scotland as well as in America, says, “ it generally selects a tall tree 
adjoining the farm-house for its nest, which is placed amongst the 
highest branches.” Mr. Mudie says “ it nestles in the tall hedge, or 
in a thick tree, near the cottage. It is no bird of the wilderness.” ^ 
This agrees with my own observation ; for I have remarked the 
Magpie to be no less partial to human neighbourhood than its cogener 
the rook ; and so far from sequestering itself, — though it is certainly a 
shy and wary bird, — I have seldom met with it except near farm- 
houses. In the north, almost every farm has its denizen pair of 
Magpies, which incubate in their hereditary nest on the old ash-tree, 
year after year, and probably for century after century, precisely hke a 
hereditary colony of rooks. In the more closely-wooded districts of 
the south, indeed, it does not so frequently build on the trees in the 
farm-yard; yet I observed in 1830, a Magpie’s nest in such a locality, 
on the very borders of Epping Forest, near Chigwell ; and another in a 
clump of elms about a hundred yards from Syon-House, the seat of the 
Duke of Northumberland. 
Goldsmith, who is unusually copious in his history of the Magpie, 
gives it credit for extraordinary instinct or intelligence. “ The nest,” 
he says, “ is usually placed conspicuous enough, either in the middle of 
some hawthorn-bush, or on the top of some high tree. The place, 
however, is always found difficult of access ; for the tree pitched upon 
usually grows in some thick hedge-row, fenced by brambles at the 
’ Journ. of a Naturalist. ® British Naturalist, ii. 214. 
^ Ornithologia, p. 20, Note. See also Bloomfield’s Remains, ii. 129, &c. 
