THE MAGPIE. 
and female sit alternately on them for fourteen days, when as 
many little blind magpies break their shells. All in the dark, 
for seven days, the naked brood gape their mouths for the tender 
morsels their mother provides, and at the end of that time they 
open their eyes, and remain amazingly wide awake till their 
dying day. 
After perusing the above description, my readers can please 
themselves as to whether or no they will go magpie-nesting. If a 
pet magpie is desired, it will be necessary to procure a nest 
somehow, as, unless the bird comes into your possession before 
he is three weeks old, you will have considerable trouble in 
teaching him anything. For the first week the nestlings should 
be fed on bread moistened with milk, the next on finely-chopped 
meat, and after that on almost any eatable that may be at 
hand. 
When they begin to fly they may be taken into the garden, 
and allowed to flutter to a neighbouring tree, always supposing 
that you have previously well filled their bellies. When they 
begin to grow a bit hungry again, you may depend they will 
return. Provided you begin with him early enough, no bird 
learns to talk more quickly or with greater ease than the mag- 
pie. Be careful that your pupil’s lessons are not too 
heavy at first, and that he has thoroughly mastered one, before 
he begins another. It is said that the best way to commence 
the education of the magpie, indeed, all talking-birds, is to 
learn them to pronounce the vowels. 
Your magpie will be all the more healthy if allowed the 
range of the house at least half the day ; let it, however, be the 
first half, for I have always found that the magpie is more 
mischievous and thievishly inclined at twilight than at any 
other time. Watch him just at that uncomfortable period 
when it is too dark to thread a needle, and economy says it is 
too early for lamp-light, watch the “ thievish pie ” stalking 
about the house as stealthily, yet withal as determinedly as a 
professional burglar. At such times look after your valuables. 
Keep an eye on your brooches and lockets, pencil-cases, lace 
sleeves, and embroidered handkerchiefs. “ Mag ” is about, and 
if you don’t look after them, he will. 
Should trinkets or knick-knacks be lost where a magpie is 
kept, no one should be suspected till the house has been searched 
from top to bottom, and hardly then. I know a gentleman, 
who until lately kept a magpie, through whose evil practices 
an innocent person might have been cast into prison. The pie 
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