NESTS AND EGGS. 
but securely interlaced, while the bottom of the interior is 
lined with soft fibrous roots, an aperture being left in the side 
of the nest, which is barely sufficient to admit the bird. Why 
this bird should find it necessary to render its nest so defen- 
sible, has been a mystery to the naturalist ; but it is probably 
explained by the fate of an unhappy colony of magpies, whose 
story is recorded in the Magazine of Natural History. The 
birds in question had built their nests on a lofty grove of 
trees, in the neighbourhood of which a pair of tawny owls had 
also established themselves. To feed their young, the parent 
owls had made several desperate assaults on several of the 
magpies’ nests, which had been gallantly defended ; the assailing 
owls had been repeatedly repelled ; but at last the remains of 
young magpies were observed under the favourite perch of the 
young owls, an indication not to be mistaken that the strong- 
hold had been successfully stormed. One morning appeared 
there the head and feathers of an old magpie, which must 
have been dragged from the nest while roosting. 
After this, a sort of truce would seem to have been con- 
cluded, and for a whole year the owls remained quiet ; but in 
1845 the same pertinacious attack upon the nest of a pair of 
magpies, built on the very highest branch of a sycamore, near 
to their eyrie, commenced. One day Mr. Carr, who records the 
event, was roused by a shriek of agony like that of a hare 
caught in a snare ; he rushed to the spot, and arrived just in 
time to prevent another murder ! One of the owls was in the 
act of drawing the old magpie out of her nest by the head. 
By striking the trunk of the tree violently, he succeeded in 
separating the combatants for the time. In revenge, before 
the next morning, his only pair of young rooks had disap- 
peared from their nests, and a decree of doom went forth, — the 
young owls forthwith paid the penalty of their voracious appe- 
tites ! It is thus not without reason that the magpie fortifies 
her nest, and surrounds it with palisades ; for, besides the owl, 
it is subject to visits from weasels and other prying quadrupeds. 
The nest of the long-tailed tit ( Varus caudatus ) is ex- 
tremely beautiful, being of a very regular oval form, six to 
seven inches long and three and a half to four and a half 
broad; it is usually composed of moss and wool, crusted 
externally with grey lichens, the whole kept together by 
means of the flaxen fibres of plants, some wool, and delicate 
filmy shreds interwoven in a transverse direction. It is usually 
attached to, and supported by the twigs of a branch of a tree. 
294 
