This is an extraordinarily clever, sly, and calculating bird, which, although living mostly in the neighbourhood of man, never becomes confiding, though bold enough to steal a young bird off the nest, and make away with it. When a pig is killed, it lurks around for hours with other birds of the crow species, near the spot where the pig is singed and cut open; and at an opportune moment darts down, siezes something, and is instantly back on the roof or the hay rick. In a hard winter it will come into the farmyard or the village, and filch whenever and whatever it can. It builds its nest, preferably, on a road where rows of acacia trees border the cornfields; a spot which offers a wide field for its activity: doing mischief by decimating the young birds; but on the other hand it destroys grubs and beetles, and in this way is useful. It does, however, considerable harm, and therefore its numbers should be lessened in my opinion. It is well known that the Magpie steals any shining object it can find. Its call sounds like “Shakerack.” There is a saying in Hungary, where it is very numerous, that when the Magpie cries on the roof there are visitors coming. * * * * * Game-preservers have managed to destroy more Magpies than Jays in Great Britain, but the Magpie is still fairly numerous and the species is distributed widely throughout our country. In Ireland it is even increasing in numbers. The Magpie confers immense benefits by devouring slugs, snails, worms, rats and mice, and these ought surely to weigh against its depredations in the poultry yard, and where eggs and game are concerned. A number of Magpies together have, under stress of hunger, been known to attack weakly animals, and the late Lord Lilford recorded an instance of fourteen or fifteen of these birds fastening on to a sore-backed donkey in very severe snowy weather, and after the death of this animal, from natural causes, several of the birds were shot as they fed on its body. But what will starving creatures not do if they can fill their empty stomachs? Their keen eyes also see when a fox is growing exhausted, and they will hover and swoop over it in a most suggestive manner.