CROWS. 
139 
its hole, drags it out by a sudden jerk, breaks it in 
pieces, and swallows it. Now under the hedge be 
has found a snail, which he will presently 'detach 
from its shell*; hut something among the bushes has 
startled him, and lightly he springs upwards, chatter- 
ing the while, to regain his favourite tree. It is a 
cat, which, not less frightened than himself, runs off 
' towards the house. The Magpie again descends, 
steps slowly over the green, looking from side to side, 
stops and listens, advances rapidly by a succession of 
leaps, and encounters a whole brood of chickens, with 
their mother at their heels. Were they unprotected 
how deliciously would the Magpie feast ; but, alas ! it 
is vain to think it, for, with fury in her eye, bristled 
plumage, and loud clamour, headlong rushes the hen, 
overturning two of her younglings, when the enemy 
suddenly wheels round, avoiding the encounter, and 
flies after his mate. 
The food of the Magpie consists of testaceous raol- 
lusca, slugs, larvae, worms, young birds, eggs, small 
quadrupeds, carrion, sometimes grain and fruits of 
different kinds, in search of which it frequents the 
fields, hedges, thickets, and orchards, occasionally 
visits the farm-yard, prowls among the stacks, perches 
on the housetop, whence it sallies at times and exa- 
mines the dunghill and places around. Although it 
searches for larvae and worms in the ploughed fields, 
it never ventures, like the Book and several species of 
Gull, to follow the plough as it turns over each succes- 
sive furrow. 
On the ground it generally walks in the saine 
manner as the Crows, but occasionally leaps in a side- 
