THE MAGPIE. 329 



This bird, like certain other species, has increased and multi- 

 plied to a goodly extent in Ireland. The intelligent and trust- 

 worthy gamekeeper at Tollymore Park (co. Down), the seat of the 

 Earl of Roden, informed me, in Sept. 1836, that having ranged the 

 country for many miles around the park, he, by robbing their 

 nests, shooting and trapping them, destroyed in one half year 732 

 birds and eggs. At the assizes held in the spring and autumn of 

 every year, he " presented " for vermin killed, and on the occasion 

 in question received 121. for magpies, &c. So long as a reward was 

 offered for their heads, he killed immense numbers of these birds.* 

 In some particular districts of the north of Ireland, where the 

 farms are small, and every cottage possesses a few sheltering trees, 

 the magpie's nest is almost a certain accompaniment. The trees there 

 being generally the open-topped ash, render the dark ball of the 

 nest visible from so great a distance, that I have often reckoned 

 a considerable number from one point of view. The magpie 

 builds rather early, and in all kinds of trees, none being greater 

 favourites than fine old hawthorns : the eggs not uncommonly 

 amount to seven in number. Wm. Ogilby, Esq., favoured me 

 with the following note, in 1847. It relates to a part of the 

 county of Tyrone : — " Erom the immunities accorded to this mis- 

 chievous bird by some of the peasantry in my neighbourhood, 

 under the apprehension that it is sure to revenge an injury by 

 carrying off the young ducks and chickens of its persecutors, 

 magpies had increased to so inconvenient an extent, that I last 

 year employed two lads to rob their nests and bring me the eggs 

 and young. The liberal reward of a penny per egg, and three 

 pence for every young bird, soon thinned their numbers, and in a 

 few weeks time there was not a nest to be seen for miles around. 

 The old birds mostly deserted the country, but in one instance the 

 persecution they met with only served to develope the extraordinary 

 sagacity of a pair of magpies. Late in the season, — if I recollect 

 right, about the middle of July, — one of the lads brought me a 

 young brood from a nest which I afterwards inspected, and which 

 was artfully concealed and built without down or any large collec- 



* Rewards were diseontinued two or three years previous to 1836. 



