66 MAGPIE. 



Magpies have ever been prophetic birds. 



Among the Romans, not a bird 

 Without a prophecy was heard ; 

 Fortune of empires often hung 

 On the magician Magpie's tongue ; 

 And every Crow was to the State 

 A sure interpreter of fate. 



Churchill— TAc Ghost. 



They are, however, so plentiful in Herefordshire as almost to 

 put auguries at defiance ; yet still they say here — 



One for sorrow, 



Two for mirth. 

 Three for a wedding, 



Four f,or a birth. 



which is sometimes continued thus : 



Five for a fiddle. 



Six for a dance, 

 Seven for England, 



Eight for France. 



and many other Magpie portents could be named. The augury by 



number seems, however, to differ according to the age. In 1775, 



Tim Bobbin says — 



I saigh two rott'n Pynots (hong'em) that wur a sign o' bad fashin : for I 

 heard my Gronny say, hood as lief o' seen two owd harries, as two Pynots. 



And Magpies that chattered, no omen so black, 

 Odd Crows that are constantly fix'd in my track, 

 Plain prov'd that bad luck would betide. 



Clare — Disappointment. 



Magpies have many enemies, and numbers are always to be 

 seen on the keepers' gibbets. They are apt to suck wild ducks' 

 ^ggs and other eggs when they find them, and kill young chickens, 

 ducklings, rabbits or leverets ; so a bitter war is declared against 

 them — ungrateful man being quite forgetful that their principal 

 food consists of worms, snails, slugs, insects, mice, rats, tS^c. — which 

 probably renders them, on the whole, much more useful than 

 injurious to agriculturists. They will eat grain, and carry off nuts 

 and walnuts, but these thefts are slight. 



The Magpie is a shy, restless, noisy bird, chattering away on 

 the smallest occasion. The very name Mag-i^ie testifies to the bold 

 impudent familiarity of the bird ; Mag, being apparently the short 



