482 



THE MAGPIE. 



met such, or a party on their way to the altar, for neither lord 

 of the manor, parson of the parish, nor bell, book, and candle, 

 could cast out the evil spirit of the odd magpie." It was worse 

 than a black pig crossing the door of a fisherman's hut on his 

 way to sea, or a dead hare seen in his boat when at sea — all 

 which nonsense, like the so-called " Fast-days," was at one 

 time rigidly believed in, but which, instead of a mockery of 

 fast-days, are now turned into true " holidays." So most of the 

 evil attributed to this handsome bird is as void of truth as 

 its superstitious omens. Macgillivray gives a long and pitiful 

 story from his favourite authority, Mr Weir, of Boghead, who 

 says : — " To all eggs they are destructive — even the smallest 

 does not escape their minute search. To their rapacious 

 appetite a great many partridges and pheasants and other 

 birds fall an easy prey. Day after day I have seen them 

 in pursuit of the same covey. They never appeared 

 satisfied until the poor birds were extirpated" (as in the 

 interest of game he wished the poor "mag" to be). "So 

 impudent were they," he says, " that in early morning, within a 

 few yards of my house, I have seen them watching the 

 ducklings and chickens, and should any wander from their 

 mother they were sure to be carried off." [I wonder how they 

 do in Sweden and Norway ?] He also says — " Mr Wark, 

 farmer, of Hardhill, told me that his brother of Oldhall shot the 

 leg off a magpie as she was carrying off a chicken from his 

 house. She was not seen during winter and spring, but again 

 in summer — lame though she was — she still carried on her 

 murderous operations.' [Wonderful ! I wonder why she was 

 created ? or if Mr Weir or Mr Wark ever fired a shot to " carry 

 on" their own " murderous operations ?"] " One day he 

 saw her give chase to a duckling, which ran to the water for 

 safety. So intent was she upon its destruction that she 

 ventured too far in after it, and got so wet" (plucky lame 

 " mag") " that before she was able to fly he knocked her down 

 with a stick." [Exactly what he himself would have done to 

 his wounded hare.] He then tells us what a boy herding his 

 cattle told him. " He heard loud screams in a young plantation, 

 and anxious to know the cause, he proceeded to the place from 

 whence the noise came, and to his astonishment he saw a mag- 

 pie standing upon the back of a hare, almost half grown, picking 

 out its eye — the other having been torn out before his arrival." 

 What a dreadful picture ! I wonder Nature ever made such a 

 bird ! Why 1 — it leaves nothing for the corby or hoody, raven 



