Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 499 



tre, on one occasion in my young days, a schoolfellow about fourteen 

 years of age, who had not before been at any dramatic representation, 

 was present. On seeing that the woman was about to be executed 

 for the theft committed by the bird, he from the pit gallantly roared 

 out at the top of his voice that she was innocent, for he had seen the 

 magpie steal the spoons. — I well remember the laugh of the school 

 being turned against him on the following morning. 



This species rarely exhibits variety in its plumage : a white one 

 frequented a demesne near Belfast for two or three years ; and a 

 friend once saw three pure white ones, which were brought from the 

 neighbourhood to town for sale ; — they had probably been reared in 

 the same nest. 



In the month of May last, I met with the magpie about Smyrna : 

 over the greater part of the European continent it is common. 



In their respective works on British Birds, Sir Wm. Jardine ad- 

 mirably points out the favourite haunts of the magpie ; and Mr. Mac- 

 gillivray gives a very characteristic description of its manners in a 

 wild state. 



The Ja\, Garrulus glandarius, Flem.j can now be claimed 

 as an indigenous bird by about the southern half of Ireland 

 only. 



Smith, in his ' History of the county of Waterford ' (1745), says, 

 " the jay is pretty common in our woods," and in his ' History of 

 Cork' enumerates it among the birds of that county. Mr. R. Ball 

 considers it to be now rare in that quarter : in the summer of 1837 

 he saw young birds which were taken from a nest near Youghal. 

 Mr. G. J. Allman informed me in 1839, that the jay had of late, 

 owing to its being protected, become common in Lord Bandon's 

 park, in the last-named county. Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, 

 replied as follows to some queries in Feb. 1837 : — " The jay must be 

 indigenous : the oldest inhabitants remember them to be much more 

 plentiful than they now are : thej^ still breed in woods near us, but 

 were formerly to be seen close to the town." About Portarlington 

 (Queens-county) they are particularly numerous, and to go out 

 there specially for jay-shooting is not an uncommon practice. About 

 Portumna they are said to l)e met with, but not frequentlj^. In Rvitty's 

 ' Natural History of Dublin,' the jaj" appears as one of the birds of 

 that county, and as such it is known at present to Mr. R. Ball. 



I am not aware of the existence of this bird either now, or for a 

 long time past, in the north of the island, although there are 

 many districts apparently well suited to its abode, and every year 

 becoming more so from the increasing age of full-grown timber. 

 Dubourdieu, in his ' Survey of the county of Antrim,' remarks — "The 

 jay was much more frequent before the woods at Portmore were cut ; 

 it is still [1812] however to be met with about Shanes Castle, and 

 other woods at the borders of the lake [NeaghJ." I have been un- 

 able to verify its being there at so late a period. It must not be 

 taken for granted that the bird called jay in the north of Ireland is 

 the Garrulus (jlandarius, as that name is frequently bestowed on the 



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