IN IRELAND 325 



say, a much more popular one, was that they were 

 imported by the English out of spite. * They are 

 very common in Ireland now; and it seems that, 

 by a curious coincidence, they re-entered the 

 country about the same time as the re-appearance 

 of the frogs there, St Patrick's curse, I suppose, 

 having been suspended. One wonders why Irish 

 humour has not yet caused the presence of a bird 

 which is commonly represented as so mischievous, 

 to figure in the House of Commons, among the 

 many "wrongs of Ireland." When the final bill 

 is presented of the sum due, in the imagination of 

 Irish Patriots, from England to Ireland, we may 

 yet see an item in the "great account " headed, a la 

 Kruger,' " to moral and material damage wrought 

 by the magpie," so many pounds, so many shillings, 

 and so many odd pence ! 



It is a pity that so few of the poets, usually the 

 best interpreters of Nature and full of sympathy 

 with her in her many moods, have found a word 

 to say on the beauty of the magpie, on the grace 

 of her movements, on her many attractive, or even 

 estimable qualities. They seem only to have 

 noticed her more superficial and less admirable 



* See Yarrell's British Birds, 2nd edition, " The Magpie," 

 vol. ii., p. 113. 



