324 THE MAGPIE 



ones ; but when two go out together, the weather 

 is warm, and mild, and, thus, favourable for fishing." 

 The history of the magpie in Ireland is highly 

 characteristic of the country and its inhabitants, and 

 has been accurately traced by Yarrell. She has 

 been almost as conspicuous there by her absence, 

 as by her presence. As long ago as 1360, her 

 absence from Ireland was noted and thought 

 noteworthy. Was she banished, I wonder, by 

 St Patrick, along with the snakes and the frogs ? 

 Two centuries later (1578), Derrick while, in his 

 Image of Ireland, he congratulated the country 

 on her continued absence, deplored the presence 

 of her counterpart, a worse miscreant still. 



" No pyes to plucke the thatch from house 



Are breed in Irish grounde ; 

 But worse than pyes, the same to burne, 

 A thousande maie be founde." 



A century later again, no less a person than Swift 

 thought it worth his while to tell his " Stella " 

 that magpies were, contrary to the general opinion, 

 indigenous to Wexford, and that they were 

 spreading thence over the country. One tradition 

 said that they were carried over to Ireland from 

 England by a storm. Another, and, needless to 



