1889-90.] The Magpie. 385 



in this thickly populated district seems a mystery. Notwith- 

 standing the number shot and trapped by game-preservers, 

 and the nests destroyed by schoolboys and idle persons, a 

 good many broods are still hatched every year. These may 

 occasionally be seen in flocks of from half-a-dozen to a dozen 

 in the autumn and winter months. Magpies are regarded by 

 some country people as unlucky birds, and certain numbers of 

 them together are considered ominous of good or evil. Having 

 been brought up in Berwickshire, I recollect when a boy being 

 impressed with a rhyme which was usually applied when a 

 brood of magpies was seen in the district. Mr Muirhead, in 

 his recent work on ' The Birds of Berwickshire,' refers to it 

 thus : — 



" One 's mirth, two 's grief, 



Three's a wedding, four's death, 



Five is heaven, six is hell, 



Seven the devil's ain sel'." 



A version of it may be heard among the school children in 

 many parts of the country, varying in different localities. In 

 the kingdom of Fife it runs thus : — 



" Ane's nane, twa's some. 

 Three 's a fiddle, four 's a drum, 

 And five 's a curly bogie." 



Why magpies and some other birds are regarded with super- 

 stition among the ignorant is difficult of explanation. Last 

 summer a pied blackbird, which frequented the neighbourhood, 

 appeared daily in a friend's garden in the suburbs of Edinburgh, 

 where crumbs were regularly put out for it to feed on. It was 

 watched from the windows with much interest by the different 

 members of the family, and a servant girl from Badenoch was 

 asked to look at it. On observing the beautiful bird she whis- 

 pered with great solemnity, " Something is sure to happen 

 whateffer, with that black-and-white bird coming so near." 

 About thirty-five years ago Mary Lorraine, an old nurse in the 

 service of Mr Clay, tenant of Winfield farm in Berwickshire, 

 saw seven magpies together on returning from church, and 

 told her mistress immediately on reaching home that some- 

 thing serious was sure to happen. Within a few days there- 

 after the stackyard was burned, and the nurse till the day of 

 her death believed that the " birds of evil omen " had foretold 



