320 THE MAGPIE. 



young game ; whilst, in general, the lower orders have an insurmount- 

 able prejudice against it, on the score of its supposed knowledge of 

 their future destiny. They tell you that, when four of these ominous 

 birds are seen together, it is a sure sign that, ere long, there will be 

 a funeral in the village ; and that nine are quite a horrible sight. I 

 have often heard countrymen say that they had rather see any bird 

 than a magpie ; but, upon my asking them the cause of their anti- 

 pathy to the bird, all the answer I could get was, that they knew it 

 to be unlucky, and that it always contrived to know what was going 

 to take place. My keeper both hates and fears a magpie ; but self- 

 interest forces upon the fellow the unpleasant task of encouraging 

 the breed, in order to keep well with me. He was once in conver- 

 sation with the keeper of a neighbouring gentleman, at the door of 

 a little alehouse in the village of Heath, when a magpie flew into 

 a tree hard by. " I must have thee killed," said the gentleman's 

 keeper, " otherwise there will be a blow up betwixt me and my 

 master." " Ah ! " rejoined my keeper, " were I to kill a magpie, my 

 master would soon blow me out of his service." The keeper 

 thought this too good to be lost, and I had it from his own mouth. 



I love in my heart to see a magpie, for it always puts me in mind 

 of the tropics. There is such a rich glow of colour, and such a 

 metallic splendour of plumage in this bird, that one would almost be 

 apt to imagine it must have found its way here from the blazing 

 latitudes of the south. 



I am fully aware that it has propensities of a sufficiently predatory 

 nature to bring it into general disrepute with civilised man ; but let 

 us remember that, like the carrion crow, it only exercises them to 

 any serious extent for about two months in the spring of the year. 

 At that season, it certainly commences operations with surprising 

 assiduity. Cacus himself, that ancient thief, when he was about to 

 steal the cows of Hercules, never exhibited greater cunning than 

 that which this bird puts in practice after it has discovered a hen's 

 nest in the yard, or a place of sitting game in the field. Both the 

 magpie and the carrion crow transfix the eggs with their beaks, and 

 then convey them through the air. 



After the season of incubation is over, the magpie becomes a 

 harmless bird (unless the pilfering of a little unprotected fruit be 



