THE MAGPIE. 191 



number of their eggs being sometimes eight. They do not 

 choose the very highest trees for their nests, but they always, 

 when there is a choice, select thick and bushy ones; and 

 it has been remarked, that the tree which contains a mag- 

 pie's nest, is seldom uprooted by the winds, even in the 

 violence of the winter, and when the birds are in a more 

 sheltered habitation. By parity of reasoning, that house on 

 the top of which the magpie perches, is in no danger of 

 falling ; but woe be to the beast on whose back it perches, 

 for the magpie perches on dead beasts, and consequently, 

 when it perches on living ones, it wishes, prophesies, and 

 even dooms them dead ! The magpie is thus a bird which 

 excites very mingled and opposite sensations : it is a bird 

 of hope and confidence, and of fear and despair ; but the 

 feeling towards it leans upon the whole to the suspicious; 

 and one set of the ignorant spare the magpies and their 

 nests for the same reason that another class never mention 

 the name of the devil except in under tone, and with 

 much respect, lest they should come by some heavy or 

 bodily harm! And the magpie filches away money and 

 other little matters, and when they are again found, they 

 have much of the peril of witches' money ! ISTay, more ; the 

 magpies actually take counsel together, conspire, and club 

 their wits, for weal or for woe, as it may turn out. If there 

 is an even number, and all are cheerily met, then happy 

 times to the matrons, high hopes to the maids, and health 

 and long life to all the family or the parish, if the place of 

 meeting is in or near the churchyard ! but woe be to that 

 house before which there is an assemblage, with an odd 

 magpie sitting sulkily apart ; and tenfold woe, if that sight 

 crosses a lover on his path, or a party on their way to the 

 altar ! A black pig crossing the door of a fisherman's hut, 

 or even a dead hare detected in his boat when at sea, is not 

 more perilous not half so much so ; for neither lord of the 



