102 
THE COMMON MAGPIE. 
it is vain to think of 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 
off after his mate. 
There again, you perceive them in the meadow, as they walk about, with 
elevated tails, looking for something eatable, although apparently with little 
success. By the hedge afar off are two boys with a gun, endeavouring to 
creep up to a flock of Plovers on the other side. But the Magpies have 
observed them, and presently rising fly directly over the field, chattering 
vehemently, on which the whole flock takes to wing, and the disappointed 
sportsmen sheer off in another direction. 
The food of the Magpie consists of testaceous mollusca, 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 house-top, whence it sallies at times, and examines the 
dunghill and places around. Although it searches for larvae and worms in 
the ploughed fields, it never ventures, like the Rook, and several species 
of Gull, to follow the plough as it turns over each successive furrow. It 
has been accused of picking the eyes of lambs and sickly sheep, I think 
with injustice ; but it sometimes carries off a chicken or duckling, and 
sucks an egg that may have been dropt abroad. 
It is extremely shy and vigilant in the vicinity of towns, where it is much 
molested, but less so in country places, although even there it is readily 
alarmed. When one pursues it openly, it flits along the walls and hedges, 
shifts from tree to tree, and at length flies off to a distance. Yet it requires, 
all its vigilance to preserve its life ; for as it destroys the eggs and young 
of game birds, it is keenly pursued by keepers and sportsmen, so that one 
might marvel to find it maintaining its ground as a species, and yet it is 
not apparently diminishing in most parts of the country. 
On the ground it generally walks in the same manner as the Crows, but 
occasionally leaps in a sidelong direction. The sounds which it emits are 
a sort of chuckling cry or chatter, which it utters when alarmed, as well as 
when it wishes to apprise other birds of danger. On the appearance of a 
fox, a cat, or other unfriendly animal, it never ceases hovering about it, and 
alarming the neighbourhood by its cries, until the enemy has slunk away 
out of sight. 
It generally keeps in pairs all the year round, accompanies its young for 
some weeks after they first come abroad, and after the breeding season 
retires at night to the copses or woods, where sometimes a considerable 
number meet together. It begins to construct its nest early in March, 
