When the Arts in their infancy were, In a fable of old 'tis express'd A wise magpie constructed that rare Little house for young birds, call'd a nest.
This was talk'd of the whole country round; You might hear it on every bough sung, "Now no longer upon the rough ground Will fond mothers brood over their young:
"For the magpie with exquisite skill Has invented a moss-cover'd cell Within which a whole family will In the utmost security dwell."
To her mate did each female bird say, "Let us fly to the magpie, my dear; If she will but teach us the way, A nest we will build us up here.
"It's a thing that's close arch'd overhead, With a hole made to creep out and in; We, my bird, might make just a bed If we only knew how to begin."
To the magpie soon every bird went And in modest terms made their request, That she would be pleased to consent To teach them to build up a nest.
She replied, "I will show you the way, So observe everything that I do: First two sticks 'cross each other I lay -- " "To be sure," said the crow, "why I knew
"It must be begun with two sticks, And I thought that they crossed should be. " Said the pie, "Then some straw and moss mix In the way you now see done by me."
"O yes, certainly," said the jackdaw, "That must follow, of course, I have thought; Though I never before building saw, I guess'd that, without being taught."
"More moss, more straw, and feathers, I place In this manner," continued the pie. "Yes, no doubt, madam, that is the case; Though no builder myself, so thought I."
Whatever she taught them beside, In his turn every bird of them said, Though the nest-making art he ne'er tried He had just such a thought in his head.
Still the pie went on showing her art, Till a nest she had built up half-way; She no more of her skill would impart, But in her anger went fluttering away.
And this speech in their hearing she made, As she perch'd o'er their heads on a tree: "If ye all were well skill'd in my trade, Pray, why came ye to learn it of me?"
When a scholar is willing to learn, He with silent submission should hear; Too late they their folly discern, The effect to this day does appear.
For whenever a pie's nest you see, Her charming warm canopy view, All birds' nests but hers seem to be A magpie's nest just cut in two.[A]
[A] I beg to inform my young readers that the magpie is the only bird that builds a top to the nest for her young.
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