100 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
their young. In the Forest of Delamere the Magpie, 
though not so abundant as the Jay, is a very common 
resident. 
In the whole of the Mersey Valley above Warrington, 
and throughout the east and north-east of the county, 
the bird, in spite of persecution, is exceedingly plentiful ; 
the large domed nest, often built in a poplar, being a 
prominent feature of the landscape when the trees are 
bare. At Romiley, where, after the breeding season, it 
is not unusual to see a score of birds in a flock, more 
than one hundred were killed on one small shooting 
in 1896. Mr. N. Neave tells us that in 1891 he took 
seventy eggs, and found many nests containing young, 
in the neighbourhood of Rainow. Here, as elsewhere 
in the Hill Country, the Magpie is regarded with great 
disfavour by the poultry-keeper and game-preserver 
alike. 
In the early morning, before people are astir, the 
Magpie throws off the habitual caution begotten of 
persecution, and may then be approached without 
much difficulty. At a quarter to four on a July 
morning Oldham saw a couple feeding in the street 
amongst the houses, within a few yards of Romiley 
railway station. 
When cock-fighting was a popular sport, an idea 
prevailed that Game-fowls’ eggs hatched by a Magpie 
produced birds with enhanced fighting qualities. Mr. 
P. Cunliffe tells us that he recollects as a boy, some 
fifty or sixty years ago, climbing to a Magpie’s nest at 
Handforth, to bring down for a farmer some chickens, 
whose birth was proclaimed by their chirping.? 
1 Naturalist, February 1899, p. 51. 
For account of Game-fowls hatched in Sparrow Hawk’s nest in 
Northumberland, and in nests of Magpies in France, and of Magpies 
and Hooded Crows in Scandinavia, see Naturalist, March 1899, p. 76. 
