breed in confinement. The desire to pilfer and bide any
small shining article, observable in all the birds of this
family, is particularly conspicuous in the Magpie, and has
been made the subject of a dramatic performance of an
interest so intense, that few who have witnessed the exhibition
are likely to forget.
Through its bad name the Pie is now become, as before
remarked, a rare bird in England ; but some pairs breed
yearly in every county. In Scotland it is more common,
and in certain parts of the country may still be called
numerous. It is not found in Shetland, Orkney or the Outer
Hebrides, but, according to Mr. Gray, occasionally visits
Islay and Mull.
It is now very common throughout Ireland ; but that this
was not the case once, is proved by investigations begun by
Ogilby, and published in the First Edition of this work,
though some of the evidence was unknown to him. In the
| Polycronicon ’ of Ranulphus Higden, who died about 1360,
the Pie is named among various animals not found in Ireland*.
This chronicle was translated by John of Trevisa between
1357 and 1387, and the portion containing a description
of the three kingdoms was printed in 1480 by Caxton. In
that of Ireland, the passage (fol. 245) runs thus - “ Ther
lacken vnkynde faucons, gerfaucons, partrychis fesaunte,
Nyghtyngals & pyes, Ther lacken also Roo and bucke and
Ilespiles wontes and othir venymous bestes.”
In 1578, Derricke, who wrote ‘The Image of Irelande’,
published in London in 1581, says—
No Pies to plucke the Thatch from'liouse,
are breed in Irishe grounde :
But worse then Pies, the same to bnrne,
a thousande maie be founde f
* Higden’s words, as given by Prof. Churchill Babington in 1865 (Rolls Ed. i.
p. 338), are :—“ desunt hic dégénérés falcones, quos laniarios vocant, desunt et
gyrofalcones, perdices, phasiani, picæ et philomelæ. Caret quoque capreis
et damis, hericiis, putaceis et talpis et cæteris venenosis.” This list of deficiencies
has largely benefited subsequent writers, and generally without acknowledgment
on their part.
f On the margin are the notes “ Irelande hath no Pyes breeding in i t ”, and
“ Better it were to haue Pyes the prowlers.”
In 1589, one Robert Payne wrote ‘ A Brife description of
Ireland ’—the apparently unique copy of the second edition
of which was reprinted by Dr. Aquilla Smith among the
i Tracts ’ published by the Irish Archaeological Society in
1841, and herein (i. no. 2, p. 14) we find it remarked that in
Ireland “ There is neither mol, pye, nor carren crow”. In
1617; Fynes Moryson was still able to repeat (Itinerary, pt.
iii. bk. iii. p, 160) “ Ireland hath neither singing Nightin-
gall, nor chattering Pye, nor vndermining Moule ” ; but in
1711, Dean Swift, writing in his ‘ Journal’ to “ Stella”
(Esther Johnson) says (letter xxvi.), under date of July 9,
1711, of Wexford :—“ magpies have been always there, and
no where else in Ireland, till of late years.” * This statement,
though no doubt partly erroneous, points to the first
appearance of the bird in the south-east of the island.
K’eogh, in 1739, included it as an Irish species in his
‘ Zoologia Medicinalis ’, assigning it (p. 61) a native name
“ Maggidipye ” f ; and Charles Smith, writing about 1746,
says (Antient and Present State &c. of Cork, ii. p. 325),
* Hereon Ogilby writing to the Author says :— “ It must be confessed that the
testimony afforded by this passage is not so explicit as could be wished. That the
Magpie existed always, or, in other words, was indigenous to the vicinity of Wexford,
and to no other part of the country, is scarcely credible, even if it were Dot
directly contradicted by the preceding quotation from Derrick. That it might
have continued to be a local denizen for a considerable time after its introduction,
is more probable, and more in accordance with the habits of the b ird : and this
circumstance of its locality probably gave origin to the popular idea expressed by
Swift, of its being indigenous to the county of Wexford. We may, however, conclude
with greater certainty,:—for upon this point our authority is express,—that
it was only in the reign of Queen Anne that the bird began to spread generally
over the kingdom ;—that is, at the same period as the introduction of Frogs ;
and indeed I have sometimes heard these two events spoken of traditionally as
having been simultaneous. The town of Wexford is remarkable as having been
the first place of strength in the island which was reduced and colonised by the
English. Even to the present day the great majority of the inhabitants of that
part of the country are of English extraction; and it is not improbable that
their forefathers brought the Magpie with them from England, perhaps as a pet,
to put them in mind of their native land ; for it is scarcely possible that any
one would voluntarily introduce so mischievous an animal. At all events,
St. Patrick's curse, which is said to rest so heavily on the whole tribe of serpents,
does not appear to have extended to Frogs and Magpies, for I know no part of
the world where both breeds thrive better or faster than in Ireland.
f Dr.,A. Smith hereon observes “ This evidently Anglo-Irish word, for we
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