he believed, for their young. The first foray of certain country jackdaws, in the early morning, is to the town, where they are very punctual in making their appearance: on the 11th of June, I once noted their arrival at 45 minutes past 3 o'clock.* Here they are quite innocuous; but in the country, they occasionally levy contributions. Montagu has remarked, that they are "fond of cherries," to the truth of which, many of the gardeners about Belfast could bear testimony. Of all birds they are the most destructive to this fruit. A friend on one occasion coming upon a number regaling in one of his cherry-trees, fired at them, without reflecting on the damage he must necessarily do to the tree, and five fell dead to the ground. They and other species, particularly blackbirds (Turdus Merula), for some years entirely consumed the crop of cherries on a number of fine tall standard trees which could not conveniently be netted, and in consequence of their depredations, the trees were all cut down. The cherry-trees in the garden of another friend, resident in the neighbourhood of Belfast, were sacrificed for a similar reason. In a district well known to me, jackdaws generally associate with rooks, and hence participate both in the good and evil done by these birds to the farm; though, as mentioned in treating of the rook, the former greatly preponderates. In a wild and uncultivated part of the northern coast of the island, I have in summer remarked flocks of these birds feeding on the sea-shore between tide-marks, and among large stones, grown over with Fuci. The sites chosen by the jackdaw for perching are frequently amusing. I have observed four of them, in flying to a vane, alight with the most correct regularity on the letters N. E. S. W., while a fifth surmounted the ball, and thus would they remain stationed for some time, looking "part and parcel" of the weathercock. On the head of Nelson, as he stands erect in all his majesty on the top of the pillar which bears his name in Sackville Street, Dublin, I have seen the jackdaw alight, and impart an air * On the 15th of June, 1847, jackdaws were calling and flying about London at 3 o'clock in the morning. of the ludicrous to the hero of Trafalgar. But under similar circumstances, this bird would not scruple to perch even "On the bald first Cæsar's head." Three jackdaws, entirely white, were reared in a chimney in Belfast a few years ago, and about the same time two of a similar colour were brought up at a demesne in the neighbourhood, where they were observed associating, both in feeding and on wing, with their sable brethren, who acknowledged them as kindred. Unfortunately, they were persecuted to the death by man on account of their colour. They proved to be perfect albinoes, the bills and legs, as well as the plumage, being white; their hoary moustaches gave them a most venerable appearance, though in reality they were young birds of the year. On the 29th of June, 1835, I saw many jackdaws about the fissures of the lofty chalk-cliffs rising above the river Derwent, near Matlock in Derbyshire, where it was presumed they built, and on the next evening heard them call there so late as ten o'clock, which tended to confirm the conjecture. In the spring and summer of 1841, I observed jackdaws equally numerous in the Morea and the Archipelago, as they are in similar localities at home. They appeared about the ruins of the old castle at Patras; the high western cliffs of the island of Sphacteria (the scene of Byron's Corsair), and on the rocky islet, lying to the north-east of the entrance to Port Nausa, in the island of Paros. * Mr. R. Patterson of Belfast has contributed the following note: :-"I remember several years ago, a near relative, who then lived in Dublin, had a pet jackdaw, which answered to the name of Jack, and was regularly in the habit of performing a feat, which might baffle many a person who talks about the centre of gravity.' When my friend after dinner had mixed his tumbler of punch, and called 'Jack,' the bird instantly came, and perched on the edge of the glass, where he poised himself so nicely that it was never upset. I believe, that on such occasions he used to get from his master a bit of white sugar, which he ate while thus resting on the tumbler." THE MAGPIE. Pica caudata. Corvus pica, Linn. Has long been common throughout the island. SMITH, in his History of the county of Cork, published in 1749, remarks, that it “was not known in Ireland seventy years ago, but is now very common. Rutty, in his Natural History of Dublin, observes, that "it is a foreigner, naturalized here since the latter end of King James the Second's reign, and is said to have been driven hither by a strong wind." (!) Dean Swift thus alludes to it in his Journal to Stella:-"Pray observe the inhabitants about Wexford; they are old English; see what they have particular in their manners, name, and language. Magpies have been always there, and nowhere else in Ireland, till of late years."* To a commentary on this, by Mr. Ogilby, published in Yarrell's British Birds (vol. ii. p. 111), the reader is referred. In the Irish Statutes, 17 Geo. II. ch. 10, a reward is offered for magpies, along with other "four, and two-footed vermin."+ * Derricke, who wrote his Image of Ireland, in Queen Elizabeth's time, says— "No pies to pluck the thatch from house Are breed in Irishe grounde, But worse than pies, the same to burne Letter xxvi. vol. ii. p. 309, 2nd edit. + The following notice of the magpie appears in the 1st volume of Tracts, printed for the Irish Archæological Society. In "A brife Description of Ireland, made in this yeere 1589, by Robert Payne," it is remarked-" There is neither mol, pye, nor carren crow." In a note to this, contributed by Dr. Aquilla Smith of Dublin, it is observed: "As to the magpie (Pica caudata), our author is probably correct, for Derricke, who wrote in 1581, in his Image of Ireland, says-[the four lines above quoted are introduced here]. 'Ireland,' says Moryson, in 1617, hath neither singing nightingall, nor chattering pye, nor undermining moule.' Itinerary, part iii. b. iii. p. 160. [The extract elsewhere given from Smith's Cork appears here.] The earliest notice of this bird as indigenous in Ireland is in Keogh's Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica, Dublin, 8vo, 1739: he merely mentions the magpie or pianet, Hib. Maggidipye.' This evidently Anglo-Irish word, for we have no name for it in the ancient Irish language, favours the opinion held by our best-informed naturalists, that this bird is of recent introduction into this country." This bird, like certain other species, has increased and multiplied to a goodly extent in Ireland. The intelligent and trustworthy 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 127. 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 :-" From the immunities accorded to this mischievous 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 discontinued two or three years previous to 1836. tion of materials likely to attract notice, at the bottom of a low thick hedge not far from my own house. The labourers, though constantly about the place, had never observed the old birds, and the boy told me, that it was only by concealing himself for a considerable time, on observing the parent bird collecting food, that he succeeded in watching her to her retreat." Mr. Hewitson informs us, that "magpies, which with us are so suspicious of wrong, build their nests under the eaves of the Norwegian cottages.' Although protected themselves, they exhibit no more amiability towards a wounded companion there than elsewhere. My late friend George Matthews, Esq., observed in a note on these birds, that he met with them in great numbers along the coast of Norway, where they were very tame; and added, that one which he knocked over with a stone, was immediately set upon and killed by the others. The late Mr. John Montgomery, of Locust Lodge, near Belfast, remarked, that "when angry or alarmed for the safety of its young, the magpie is not only very clamorous, but pecks the branch on which it rests, violently tearing the bark off in its rage." On the 9th of May, I once saw a grey crow attack the nest of a magpie, when the latter, "single-handed," boldly repulsed and drove the intruder to some distance. The crow nevertheless returned to the nest several times, but was always beaten off without effecting its evil purpose. Bold as the magpie is in defence of its own nest, I have more than once seen it beaten away by a pair of missel-thrushes from the vicinity of theirs. It has often been stated, that if one of a pair of magpies having a nest be shot, another mate is soon found; the period, according to Mr. Selby, "sometimes scarcely exceeding a day;" but a gentleman of my acquaintance assures me, that on his shooting one of a pair of these birds in the forenoon, the survivor had found another partner before evening. Perhaps the most remarkable instance of widowed magpies becoming provided with new partners, is that recorded by the celebrated Dr. Jenner, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1824 (p. 21). These birds are * Eggs, Brit. Birds. Introd. p. xv. |