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MAGPIE. 

 Pica rustica {Scop.). 



Resident, generally distributed, decreasing in numbers, but still 

 fairly common in spite of persecution. 



Probably the earliest Yorkshire mention of this bird is 

 that made in 1808 by the Rev. J. Graves in his " History of 

 Cleveland," where the Magpie is enumerated as a resident. 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Pica caudata. — Magpie — Common everywhere. 



Notwithstanding much persecution at the hands of game- 

 keepers, this species continues to exist in the county, though 

 its ranks are greatly reduced in comparison with its standing 

 of thirty or forty years ago. At that period it was common 

 in the southern portions, as many as fifty being seen in one 

 day in New Spring Wood, near Barnsley, and at Charles 

 Waterton's residence, Walton Hall, where all birds were 

 strictly protected, no less than thirty-four nests of this bird, 

 each with its complement of young, were known in 1835 ; 

 at Stocksmoor, near Huddersfield, previous to 1859, large 

 assemblies were observed in severe weather ; since that date 

 they have been much reduced there [Zool. 1862, p. 7881), 

 though an extraordinary abundance was noted in 1902. 

 In Craven and Upper Wharfedale also it was an abundant 

 species in the middle of the past (19th) century. At the 

 present time it is still generally, but sparingly, distributed 

 where conditions favourable to its existence are found ; 

 woods or spinneys, and trees growing in hedgerows in thinly 

 populated districts. 



In most parts of the West Riding, removed from the 

 neighbourhood of large manufacturing towns, the bird is 

 met with, though its numbers are kept down to a low point ; 

 in some places it nests to an elevation of upwards of 1000 

 feet, but in the highest dales and moorland districts it is 

 very scarce. In the North Riding, where are many sparsely 

 inhabited tracts and low-lying dales, it used to be fairlj' 



