338 
CORVIDAE. 
frequented the demesne at Malone House, near Belfast, for two or 
three years ; and a friend once saw three pure white ones, wdiich 
were brought from the neighbourhood to town for sale ; — they 
had probably been reared in the same nest. In January, 1846, a 
white specimen of the magpie was killed in the county of Down, 
by John R. Garner, Esq., of Garnerville, at the same shot with 
another in ordinary plumage. It was noted by me at the time, — 
“ as almost wholly white, but a few black feathers appear indis- 
criminately over the plumage except in the tail, which, save a 
small patch of black towards the point of one feather, is alto- 
gether white. The tarsi and toes are pied flesh-colour and black ; 
the bill wholly black.” This bird and another, shot in the neigh- 
bourhood in Eebruary, 1848, were presented to the Belfast Mu- 
seum. The wings of the latter were almost wholly white, and all 
the parts of the plumage usually black of different shades, ex- 
hibited more white than black, the tail having least of this colour. 
On one feather of its longest pair, a little white appeared for 
about an inch along the edge from the tip upwards ; the next pair in 
length had a good deal of pure white towards the tips; those ex- 
terior to them retained their ordinary hue. The tarsi and toes 
also were partially white, as usual in albino varieties of birds ; 
the base (“ plante ”) of the toes were almost wholly white, as 
well as the hinder portion of the tarsi, for about half an inch up- 
wards from the base of the hind toes. 
In the month of May, I met with the magpie about Smyrna : 
it is common over the greater part of the European continent. 
Sir. Wm. Jardine (in his work on British Birds) admirably 
points out the favourite haunts of the magpie ; and Mr. Macgil- 
livray gives a very characteristic description of its manners in a 
wild state. The latter observes, that “ in the Outer Hebrides, 
the Shetland and Orkney islands, it is never seen,” vol. i. p. 565. 
Dr. J. D. Marshall has remarked, that from the total want of 
wood in the island of Rathlin, off the Giant's Causeway, the magpie 
is very scarce. 
