494 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



magpie is not only very clamorous, but pecks the branch on which 

 it rests, violently tearing the bark off in its rage." On the 9th of 

 May, I once saw a gray crow attack the nest of a magpie, when 

 the latter, "single-handed," boldly repulsed and drove it off to some 

 little distance. The crow nevertheless returned to the nest several 

 times, but was always beaten off without effecting its evil purpose. 

 Bold as the magpie is in defence of its own, I have more than once 

 seen it beaten away by a pair of missel- thrushes {Turdus viscivorus) 

 from the vicinity of their nest. 



It has been often observed, that if one of a pair of magpies 

 having a nest be shot, another mate is soon found, the period, 

 according to Mr. Selby, ** sometimes scarcely exceeding a day ;" 

 but a gentleman of my acquaintance assures me, that on his shoot- 

 ing one of a pair of these birds in the forenoon, the survivor had 

 found another partner before evening. Perhaps the most remarkable 

 instance of widowed magpies becoming provided with new partners 

 is that recorded by the celebrated Dr. Jenner in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1824 (p. 21). These birds are often so far gre- 

 garious as to frequent particular groves near their feeding-ground 

 for roosting, in considerable numbers, and to which they resort in 

 straggling flocks : I have thus reckoned twenty-six on wing to- 

 gether, when the distance between the first and last resembled that 

 in an ill-matched pack of hounds during the chace. November 20, 

 1838, was a dull, dark, true November day throughout, and so early 

 as half-past two o'clock p.m., I saw a number of these birds that had 

 evidently retired to roost for the night ; so many as about twenty of 

 them, which on being alarmed by me flew from a fine old willow on 

 the banks of the Lagan, looked very beautiful as they rose together. 



Magpies are very generally persecuted with us on account of their 

 evil propensities. One friend complains that his garden has suffered 

 much from their depredations on cherries and other fruit ; another 

 that the eggs of game, &c. are greatly destroyed by them ; — their 

 propensity for eggs is taken advantage of for their destruction, and 

 they become victims to the trap baited with those of our domestic 

 fowl. Grain, too, they certainly consume, but their numbers are not 

 anywhere so great as to do much injury in this respect. That they 

 do a great deal of good, I have had abundant and positive evidence 

 from an examination of the contents of their stomachs (supplied me 

 by bird-preservers) at various times, but particularly in winter, when 

 almost every one contained insects (chiefly Coleoptera), or the re- 

 mains of mice and slugs — of the last, the internal shell (Limacellus, 

 Brard.) only remained — mixed with these occasionally appeared oats 

 and other grain. In winter, the magpie, as well as others of the 

 CorvidcB, is of great service to the public, by resorting in numbers 

 to such meadows as are manured with the offensive refuse of the 

 slaughter-house, and feeding on the titbits* ! By George Mathews, 



* Since writing my account of the magpie, I find that this and several 

 other particulars dwelt upon are much better treated of by Mr. Waterton 

 in his t Essays on Natural History.' His description of the bird through- 

 out is excellent. 



