332 
CORVIM. 
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 warren er 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 
