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MAGPIE.

Tue magpie will be seen, upon a close inspection,
to be one of the handsomest of our native birds. It is
elegantly pied with black and white, and there is a very
rich metallic gloss of green and purple on the feathers
of the tail, which, as shewn in the plate, is of more than
ordinary size.

In the “Illustrated Family Journal,” the following
account is given of this bird:—‘The magpie is a species
of crow, famous for its noise, mimicry, shrewdness, and
even theft. It is common generally over Britain and
the south of Europe, but seldom seen in Norway. It is
omnivorous; builds its nest in the most guarded fashion,
and in the strongest and most sheltered trees; has’ an
extraordinary propensity, not only for plundering its
neighbeur-birds of their eggs, but for stealing and
secreting things that can be of no use to it; and may
be taught to pronounce whole sentences, and to imitate
any particular noise. Plutarch tells a story of a magpie
at Rome, that, happening to hear a sound of trumpets,
astonished people for a day or two by sitting quite pen-
sive and mute. It was supposed that the trumpets had
stunned it. But the bird, it seems, was in a state of
profound meditation and study, turning all the sounds
and cadences of the trumpets over in its mind, and
accordingly having arranged the business to its satisfac-
tion, it burst forth into a perfect imitation of the whole
performance, with all its repetitions, stops, and changes.
It was observed, however, that this new acquisition
totally obliterated all its former ones. Upon the