ONCE upon a time
When pigs spoke rhyme,
all the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests; for the magpie was very clever. So she had them gather around her and began to show them how to do it. First of all she took some mud and made a sort of a round cake with it.
“Oh, that’s how it’s done!” said the thrush, and away she flew, and the thrush has built her nests out of mud ever since.
Then the magpie took some twigs and arranged them around in the mud.
“Now I know all about it,” said the blackbird. So off she flew, and the blackbirds make their nests of mud and sticks to this very day.
Then the magpie put another layer of mud over the twigs.
“Oh, that’s quite plain!” said the owl, and away she flew, and owls have made their nests after that manner ever since.
Next the magpie took some twigs and twined them around the outside.
“The very thing!” exclaimed the sparrow, and off she went, and the sparrows to this day make rather slovenly nests.
Then Madge Magpie took some feathers and other bits of soft material and lined the nest very nicely with it.
“That suits me!” cried the starling, and away she flew, and ever since then the starlings have built very comfortable nests.
The magpie kept on with her work, but the birds were constantly leaving before she had finished, each thinking she knew all there was to know about nest-building. At last the only bird that remained was the turtle-dove. She now began to repeat her silly cry, “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o!”
The magpie was just putting a twig across, and she said, “No, one is enough.”
But the turtle-dove kept on saying, “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o!”
That made the magpie angry, and she exclaimed, “One’s enough, I tell you!”
Still the turtle-dove cried, “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o!”
At this the magpie became so disturbed that she flew away, and always afterward, when the birds asked her how to build their nests, she refused to tell them. That is why different birds build their nests differently.
