Magpie. 243 



the taking of all nests is strictly forbidden, have proved for 

 many years a successful nursery for the Magpies, which annually 

 return to breed there, and generally bring off their brood in 

 safety. But to see how confiding this bird can be under the 

 most favourable circumstances one must visit Norway. There 

 it is absolutely safe from persecution, being regarded with the 

 utmost superstitious fear rather than reverence, and so it is the 

 very tamest and commonest of birds, scarcely moving out of our 

 way as we passed by, and building its nest in some bush or tree 

 close to a cottage door. Something of the same superstitious 

 feeling appears to have been generally entertained for the 

 Magpie in this country, the remains of which still linger in the 

 following well-known lines, signifying the good or ill luck fore- 

 told by the number of these birds seen together : 



' One for sorrow, two for mirth, 

 Three for a wedding, four for a birth.' 



Though I would explain, as I have done elsewhere, that this was 

 a fisherman's saying in the first place, and applied only to the 

 season of spring, when it was unlucky for the angler to see a 

 single Magpie, because that betokened cold and stormy weather, 

 when one Magpie would remain on the nest, sitting on the 

 young to keep them warm : whereas it was lucky to see two, for 

 when both parents went out together the weather must be 

 assuredly warm and settled. 



But there is an old tradition which explains the origin of the 

 ill luck that is supposed to arise from meeting a Magpie in the 

 following way. It was the only bird that refused to enter the ark 

 with Noah and his folk, preferring to perch itself on the roof of 

 the ark, and to jabber over the drowning and perishing world. 

 Ever since it has been regarded as unlucky to meet this defiant 

 and rebellious bird.* Others looked upon the bird with super- 

 stitious terror, because the witches, who had sold themselves to 

 the Evil One, and worked all manner of hurt to mankind, were 

 supposed frequently to assume the form of the Magpie. The 



* Dyer's < English Folk-Lore/ pp. 83-86. 



162 



