Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/501

Rh occasion a Sparrow-Hawk (Accipiter cirrhocephalus) was too clever for its tormentors. Some half dozen Magpies were chasing a Hawk away from a tree which contained a nest and young birds, when suddenly the Hawk doubled and, darting straight for the tree, plucked a young bird from out the nest and sailed triumphantly away. Near a certain farm in the country stands a giant eucalypt, in which a pair of Magpies nest year after year. When there are young in the nest the old birds are very savage, darting down with angry cries on every one passing under the tree.

A Magpie makes a most entertaining and useful pet, though after a time it becomes very mischievous, and delights in pulling up freshly-set plants. I have known one, after watching, say, turnips or onions being thinned out, to go on with the thinning until not a plant remained.

Another bird used to watch the operation of setting young plants very intently, and as soon as one's back was turned commence pulling them all up. As a counterpoise against these bad traits, there is the good one of being a very useful destroyer of insects of all kinds. This bird is one of our best songsters, its voice being very powerful and pleasing. Early on a summer's morning nothing is more delightful than to hear a number of Magpies pouring forth their melodious song while swaying on the topmost twigs of some lofty tree. Morning and evening are the times when most singing is done. It is no uncommon thing to hear them burst into song in the middle of some bright moonlight night, and after having successfully routed a Hawk is another occasion for a triumphal song. The wing-power of this species is very great; it can dash through space with a marvellous rapidity. Long distances (comparatively speaking) are traversed without a perceptible movement of the outstretched wings.

Launceston, Tasmania.