292 THE MAGPIE 



magoty-pte or magot-pye, as we find in Shake- 

 speare : 



" The raven rook'd her in the chimney-top, 

 And magot-pyes in dismal discords sung ; " 



and in other early writers : 



" I neither tattle with jackdaw, 

 Nor magot-pyes in thatched house straw." 



In fact, men called the pye a magot-pye, or mag- 

 pie, much as we call a daw a jack-daw, a parrot 

 a poll parrot, a tit a torn-tit, a wren a jenny wren, 

 a redbreast a Robin redbreast. It should be 

 noted that the magpie is, or was, called in Kent 

 the "haggister," a term of which I have no 

 explanation to offer, unless indeed it is either a 

 corruption of eggister, the " haig-eatingest " bird, 

 as it is supposed to be, or is connected with 

 Aglaster, the Old High German name for a mag- 

 pie, the "Agasse" of the French, or the "Gazza" 

 of the Italians, all of which mean "the chatterer." 

 In Lincolnshire, the magpie is still called the 

 " egg-lift," a term which speaks for itself. 



The nest of the magpie is, in every way, 

 remarkable. So large is it, so out of proportion 

 to the size of the bird, and, to all appearances 



