332 CORVID.E. 



On mentioning the circumstance to my friends resident there, 

 they remarked, that in former years several of these birds were 

 seen perched at the same time in this tree, when the berries were 

 ripe, though no attention was given to whether they were feeding 

 on them or not ; judging from what I observed, they doubtless 

 were so. 



By the late George Matthews, Esq., I was informed, that a 

 trustworthy warrener at Springvale, county of Down (the seat 

 of his grandfather, Major Matthews), assured him, that he once 

 saw a magpie fly some distance out to sea with a stoat or weasel 

 fastened to it, when he with some other men launched a boat, 

 and followed to observe the issue. They found the magpie lying 

 dead upon the water. The quadruped had disappeared, and as 

 they conjectured, had been drowned ; but Mr. Matthews thought 

 it might have made its way ashore, as he had often seen these 

 animals swim admirably. Montagu, in the Supplement to his 

 Ornithological Dictionary, mentions his having been witness to a 

 weasel killing a carrion crow on the ground, the latter being in 

 the first instance the aggressor. 



Once, in the month of May, when driving between Larne and 

 Glenarm, I was surprised to observe a lesser black-backed gull 

 {Lams fuscus) hovering very low over, and making a stoop at 

 a ditch-bank near the road. On looking attentively, however, 

 a magpie was discovered changing its position from whatever side 

 of the bush the gull hovered over, to the other side. After a short 

 time, the gull took its departure, and then the magpie flew along 

 the bank with some whitish-coloured object in its bill. The gull 

 returned and played the same part over again, as the magpie like- 

 wise did ; the object of the latter, from the commencement, being 

 evidently to conceal itself from the gull's observation. On seeing 

 the food in the magpie's bill, I had no doubt of its being the gull's 

 prey, which having been accidentally dropped, was carried off by 

 the magpie, whose thievish cunning it was amusing to witness, 

 though I pitied the honest sea-bird, for being thus gulled. 



Magpies are so bold, as apparently, through mere wantonness, 

 to persecute birds that would seem to be more than a match for 



