MAGPIE. Ill 



pie, and has been made the subject of a dramatic performance 

 of an interest so intense, that few who have witnessed the 

 exhibition are likely to forget it. 



The young birds of the year associate with the parents 

 for a considerable time ; and in winter, these birds, in small 

 flocks, roost together in thick woods, but separate again in 

 the day. 



The Magpie in this country, has a bad name, and is 

 accordingly doomed to destruction by every one who carries 

 a gun. But for its sagacity, eminently evinced in its self- 

 preservation, it would be a rare bird ; it is, however, very 

 common in many parts of England, particularly in the 

 wooded districts, and not much less so in other quiet park- 

 like localities, where it can have the shelter, the means of 

 observation, and the security afforded by high trees. In my 

 note-book I have a memorandum that I once counted twenty- 

 three Magpies together in Kensington Gardens. 



It is now also common throughout Ireland ; but that this 

 was not the case in that country formerly, the following- 

 account, supplied me by my friend Mr. Ogilby, will show : — 



" The earliest notice I have met with on the subject of the 

 introduction of Magpies into Ireland is contained in the 

 following verses of old Derrick, who, in his ' Image of Ire- 

 land,"* says, — 



' No Pies to plucke the thatch from house 

 Are bred in Irish grounde, 

 But worse than Pies the same to burne 

 A thousand maie be founde.' " 



It would appear, therefore, that, in the time of Queen Eli- 

 zabeth, the Magpie did not exist in Ireland : and even so 

 late as the year 1711, it seems to have been confined to the 

 neighboui'hood of Wexford, where, however, it must have 

 been introduced long prior to that period, since Swift, in the 

 following extract, speaks of it as indigenous to that part of 

 the country. The passage occurs in the twenty-sixth letter 



