GOOD OR BAD OMENS 317 



Happily, a magpie is seldom to be seen by himself, 

 and that, for the most creditable of all reasons, his 

 fondness for his family. Magpies, like ravens and 

 owls, pair for life, and they are as fond of their 

 young as they are of one another, keeping them 

 together for several months, sometimes even till the 

 next breeding season calls them to new scenes and 

 duties new. The parent birds are never, except by 

 the merest accident, out of sight of each other. If 

 you wait a minute or two, therefore, it is generally 

 easy to turn your sorrow into mirth ; and, if not, 

 you can at least do something to avert or mitigate 

 the evil consequences. If you are a Dorsetshire 

 peasant, you will respectfully raise your hat ; if 

 Devonshire, you will spit over your right shoulder 

 three times, and mutter a mystic distich ; if a York- 

 shireman, you will reverentially make the sign of the 

 cross upon your breast, or cross your thumbs ; while 

 elsewhere, you will turn three times round, and so on 

 ad infinitum. 



Scotch ideas on the subject can hardly be better 

 expressed than in the broad Scotch of the famous 

 " Shepherd " in the Nodes Ambrosiancz of Christo- 

 pher North. "I've seen an expression in the een o* 

 a pyet wi' its head turned to ae side, and though in 

 general a shy bird, no caring for you, though you 



