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north, or in very alpine districts, where the ele- 
vation becomes too great, and the forest range 
too extended. Like its congeners, it would even 
seem to delight in the vicinity of population, 
perhaps in some degree attracted by the food 
which is there presented to it, and the neighbour- 
hood of villages, or the trees which generally 
surround the farm steading, are almost sure to be 
tenanted by a pair at least of these active birds. 
There they station their nest, and a particular 
tree year after year for that purpose is selected, 
plantations and woods of limited extent being 
also frequently chosen. Among all our native or 
introduced trees, the ash is that most frequently 
built upon ; there was an ancient law or regula- 
tion in Scotland, whereby tenants were obliged to 
plant and rear a certain number of ash trees round 
the farm-steading, and accordingly most of those 
sites are surrounded by some venerable trees of 
this species on which the Pies love to build, and 
the prevalence of this tree in such situations may 
be the cause, without any particular partiality in 
the birds existing for it. The nest is generally 
placed high on a topmost branch, so weak as 
scarcely to bear the weight of a boy ; but at other 
times we have seen it placed at a moderate height 
from the ground, in low shrubbery trees, in tall 
overgrown hedges, and a gooseberry bush is in 
one instance recorded as bearing the burden for 
several years. The structure of the nest is very 
different from that of the true Crows ; independent 
of the usual cup-shaped nest, strongly built with 
