25 August: Magpies

The Qixi Festival, or Magpie Festival in China on this date in 2020. It arises from a folk tale which states that on this day, all the magpies fly to the Tianhe River and form a bridge so that the star-crossed lovers, Cowherd and Weaver Girl can meet.

1. Magpies belong to the Corvidae family, along with Crows and Ravens.
2. Like their cousins, they are highly intelligent. The relative size of a magpie’s brain is similar to that of a chimpanzee or a human, and they are able to recognise themselves in a mirror, which few non-mammal species are able to do. In one study, a non-harmful coloured mark was made on the plumage of magpies and those with the marks would try and scratch them off – so not only did they recognise their own reflections, but knew something was “off”.
3. Magpies were once known simply as “pies”. This came from an ancient word meaning “pointed”, probably referring to their beaks or tails. The “mag” was added around the 16^th century. Mag was a word used to refer to women in general, from a short form of the name Margaret. Men at the time thought the magpie’s call sounded like chattering women. The word “pied” meaning having black and white plumage, originates from magpies.
4. While we’re on words, what’s the collective noun for a group of magpies? There are several, it would appear. My research threw up charm, congregation, parliament (although isn’t that Owls?), gulp, murder (isn’t that crows?), tiding, tittering, conventicle and mischief.
5. Talking of mischief, magpies have a reputation for stealing shiny things like jewellery and hiding them in their nests. But do they? As I said, they’re very intelligent and with intelligence, comes curiosity, so it’s likely they’ll pick up an unfamiliar item in order to investigate it. However, scientists testing this out have observed that once the magpie realises the shiny object isn’t edible, it will probably put it down. Nor have shiny objects been found in magpie nests. There’s even evidence to suggest that magpies find shiny things a little scary.
6. The reputation has, however, been cemented often in literature. La Pie Voleuse is a French play written in 1815. The plot surrounds a servant who is sentenced to death for stealing the family Silver, when all along, it was her pet magpie that did it. Rossini’s opera La gazza ladra tells the same story, and more recently, in 1963, Hergé used a thieving magpie in the Tintin adventure The Castafiore Emerald.
7. Superstitions regarding magpies abound. According to legend, as Christ was being crucified, two birds perched on the cross – a dove and a magpie. The dove caught the tears of Christ, the magpie didn’t, and so the dove is good and the magpie evil. There’s also a rumour that a magpie’s tongue contains a drop of blood from the devil, which led to a fair amount of cruelty to magpies – cutting their tongues out to release the blood. In Scotland, a magpie near the window of the house is said to foretell death. Seeing a single magpie is said to be unlucky - "A single magpie in spring, foul weather will bring", says one proverb. This might have arisen because magpies forage together in fine weather. There are ways to ward off the bad luck, however. Men would tip their hats to the magpie and/or greet it. A greeting might take the form of saying the words ‘Good morning, Mr Magpie, how are Mrs Magpie and all the other little magpies?’
8. In China, the opposite is true. Magpies are seen as lucky there and they often appear in paintings and poetry. The Korean magpie is the national bird of Korea.
9. The number of magpies you happen to see is said to predict the future. See the rhyme below.
10. Magpies have a varied diet which includes insects, the eggs and chicks of other birds and carrion. One theory as to why the magpie population of the UK has quadrupled over the last 35 years is the increased traffic on the road which inevitably leads to more roadkill so the magpies can find food all year round. The fact that they eat other birds’ chicks is another reason they are unpopular with some people, although there is no evidence that it causes a decline in numbers of the birds they prey on. In fact, more eggs and chicks are lost to a much more popular animal, the domestic cat.

One for Sorrow,

Two for joy,

Three for a girl,

Four for a boy,

Five for silver,

Six for gold,

Seven for a secret never to be told.

Eight for a wish,

Nine for a kiss,

Ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss.

Eleven for health,

Twelve for wealth,

Thirteen beware it’s the devil himself.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t 

his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, 

he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get 

the job done. He’s on top of his game.


Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena

 of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. 

Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended 

victim being a super-heroine who gives as good 

as she gets. 

Only his own genetic variant power saves him from 

becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 


Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not 

expecting to fall in love with her.

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