204 THE MAGPIE. 



instance of the popular superstition with regard to this bird, 

 Mr. Clay, Kerchesters, relates that about thirty years ago, 

 when it was often seen in the neighbourhood of Win- 

 field, where he then lived, and when his eldest son was a 

 little boy, an old nurse called Mary Lorraine, who attended 

 to him, came home one day from a walk and told Mrs. Clay 

 that, as she had seen seven Piets together, she was sure that 

 something very serious was going to happen. About a week 

 afterwards Winfield farm-steading was burned down, and 

 the old nurse thought that the seven Piets had foretold the 

 misfortune. There are several versions of the above rhyme 

 current, in which one Piet is said to be a good, and two a 

 bad omen ; ^ but in some districts of France, the popular 

 belief is the reverse, for the saying there runs — " Voir deux 

 pies ou deux corneilles, c'est du bonheur, n'en voir qu'une 

 seule, c'est du malheur." ^ 



The following places in Berwickshire have apparently 

 derived their names from having been much frequented by 

 Piets : — Pyatshaw-knowe, a hill (1162 feet), and Pyatshaw 

 Eidge (1250 feet,) above Byrecleugh, in the parish of Long- 

 formacus ; Pyotknowes, about a mile south of Marchmont in 

 Togo parish; Pyatshaw, a wood in Westruther parish, a 

 short distance east of the Dod Mill on the Lauder Eoad ; 

 and Pyatshaw Burn, which flows into the Brunta Burn in 

 the same neighbourhood. 



This species is generally very shy and watchful, and is 

 almost constantly on the move. 



From bough to bough the restless Magpie roves. 

 And chatters as she flies. 



GiSBORNE, Walks in Forest. 



It will not allow a person to approach within gun-shot, but 



1 The Folk Lore and Provincial I^ames of British Birds, by the Rev. Charles 

 Swainson, 1886, pp. 77, 78. 



" Eugene Rolland, Faune Populaire de la France, torn. 11. p. 140. 



