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THE INTRODUCTION OF THE MAGPIE INTO IRELAND. 

 By G. E. H. Barrett Hamilton. 



I have recently come across two passages in the works of 

 some old writers on the County Wexford, which throw some 

 light on the manner and date of the first appearance of the 

 Magpie in Ireland. As they appear to have hitherto escaped 

 the notice of British naturalists, I think it may be well (before 

 quoting and giving a reference to the passages in question) to 

 shortly summarise the information which has been hitherto 

 collected on the subject. 



Mr. A. G. More, in the latest edition of his well-known 

 'List of Irish Birds,' describes the Magpie as "introduced from 

 England previous to 1700," and this statement is no doubt 

 based upon a study of the authors quoted by Thompson 

 (vol. i. p. 328), and Yarrell (ed. iv. vol. ii. pp. 318—320), for 

 some of which information we are indebted to the investigations 

 of Ogilby. The account of the subject given by Yarrell is 

 much fuller than that given by Thompson, as is only to be 

 expected when it is remembered at what different dates these 

 two standard works were published. In the former work several 

 writers are quoted, viz., Ranulphus Higden, who died about 1360; 

 Derricke, who wrote in 1578 ; Robert Payne (1589) ; and Fynes 

 Moryson (1617), whose united testimony bears witness to the 

 absence of the Magpie from Ireland up to 1617. Then comes a 

 gap of nearly a century, after which the curtain is lifted upon a 

 vastly different scene, when Dean Swift, writing of Wexford in 

 1711,* notes that " Magpies have been always there, and nowhere 

 else in Ireland, till of late years." After this the bird seems 

 to have spread very rapidly. It was very common in Cork by 

 1746, and has now become resident and plentiful throughout 

 Ireland. 



The passages which I shall now quote throw considerable 

 light upon the period referred to of about a century, through 

 which the history of the Magpie in Ireland appears never yet 

 to have been traced. The first of these is taken from Griffiths' 



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Journal to Stella' (Esther Johnson), letter xxvi, under date of 

 July 9th, 1711. 



