MAGPIES. 
209 
destruction, which was not finally accomplished till the other 
old one, arriving with a dead mouse, also lent its aid. The 
female was observed to he the most active and thievish, and 
withal very ungrateful ; for although the children about the 
house had often frightened cats and hawks from the spot, yet 
she one day seized a chicken, and carried it to the top of the 
house to eat it, where the hen immediately followed, and 
having rescued the chicken, brought it safely down in her 
beak ; and it was remarked that the poor little bird, though 
it made a great noise while the Magpie was carrying it up, 
was quite quiet, and seemed to feel no pain, while its mother 
was carrying it down. These Magpies were supposed to have 
been the very same pair which had built there for several 
years, never suffering either the young, when grown up, or 
anything else, to take possession of their bush. The nest 
they carefully fortified afresh every spring, with rough, strong, 
prickly sticks, which they sometimes drew in with their 
united forces, if unable to effect the object alone. To this 
tameness and familiarity the Magpie will sometimes add a 
considerable degree of courage, and not satisfied with driving 
away intruders from its premises, has been known to attack 
animals much its superior in size. One of them was seen 
pursuing a full-grown hare, making frequent and furious 
pounces upon it, from which the animal at last escaped only 
by making for a thick hedge, at the other side of which it 
ran off to some distance from the place where it had entered, 
without being observed by its pursuer. No cause could be 
assigned for this assault. 
A favourable trait in their character occurred in Essex, 
where some boys, having taken four young ones from a 
Raven’s nest, placed them in a wagon in a cart-shed. 
About the same time, they happened to destroy the young of 
a Magpie, which had built its nest near the cart-shed ; when 
the old Magpie, hearing the young Ravens cry for food, 
brought some, and constantly fed them till they were given 
away by the boys. 
Generally speaking, these birds prefer our northern cli- 
mates, though they are very plentifully spread over the 
P 
