BIRDS. 223 
THE MAGPIE. ( Corvus pica.) 
From bough to bough the restless Magpie roves 
And chatters as he flies. GISBORNE. 
THIS bird resembles the daw, except in the whiteness of 
the breast and wings, and the length of the tail. The 
black of the feathers is accompanied with a changing 
gloss of green and purple. It is a very loquacious crea- 
ture, and can be taught to imitate the human voice as 
well as any parrot. 
Plutarch relates a singular story of a Magpie belonging 
to a barber at Rome; which could imitate, to a wonderful 
extent, almost every noise that it heard. Some trumpets 
happened one day to be sounded before the shop ; and for 
a day or two afterwards the Magpie was quite mute, and 
seemed pensive and melancholy. This surprised all who 
knew it ; and they supposed the sound of the trumpets 
had so stunned the bird as to deprive it at the same time 
of voice and hearing. This, however, was not the case ; 
for, says the writer, the bird had been all the time occu- 
pied in profound meditation, and was studying how to 
imitate the sound of the trumpets : accordingly, in the 
