Feb, 10, 1938—It is a common thing to read in bird books that such-and-such a bird "usually chooses its habitat in the neighbourhood of man, ete."—but they seldom tell you why....and that is where some of us who dabble in ornithology get a great deal of fun in trying to find out, Take the case of the Magpies as an example: I am prepared to state that 80 or 90 per cent of the nests in Kiangsu Province are built close to human dwellings, and yet the Magpie is very much afraid of man, even of his fellow Chinese unless he happens to know him well: so what is it that he wants from man—that is the question? Looking back on my records, I find that for some years I have taken a census of nests in certain sections of the residential area; but this year I found it almost impossible to grapple with the task because of the sudden increase in the number of nesting birds, Where nests were previously not less than 800 yards apart they are now 400 yards apart, and the number of birds inside the "perimeter" must have doubled or trebled Personally I do not think the answer is far to seek, Owing to the recent warfare in the "near country" many peasant homes have been either burnt or vacated: in hundreds of little compounds where Magpies lived contentedly the home fires have ceased to burn... and that, I believe, is the secret: our local Magpies carry out their nesting activities in the very coldest months—roughly December to March—and the thing they want most during the long night watches is warmth. Where there is fire there is a chimney and 1 can well imagine a Magpie in search of a "highly desirable building site" adding to his (mental) specification the words, "must have well-warmed roof within easy flying distance." So the Magpie has followed the trail of smoke from the country into the town,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.