Everything I said about the crow, but now with another colour! Has been called Hoodie (still is by me) together with Hoddie, Dun, Grey-backed and Grey crow: all obviously from its plumage. Local names included: Royston crow and Royston cick, Kentish crow; Market Jew crow, Scremerston crow, Corbie, Craa, Scald crow, Praheen cark, Bunting crow and, the obvious winner, Cawdy mawdy.

As it was supposed that numbers of hooded crows found on the English coast in winter came from abroad, they have also been given the name Norway crow, Danish crow and Harry Dutchmen. In Norfolk they were known as Northern crows, heck 'The North' was more than foreign enough those folk.

The only 'song' that Swainson (1885) notes is from Moray. Before fully and truly enjoying this ditty we need to know 1: Gule is a local name for a voracious weed that reduced corn crops (prob. Corn marigold) 2: Gordon's were (are) a Scottish clan known for destructive raids. Right, now we are up to date with all that, I give you:

     " The gule, the Gordon and the Hoddie craw
       are the three warst things things that Moray ever saw "

I didn't say it was any good did I.

Absent from much of the UK Hooded Crows are generally distributed up at the northern end. Locally here in Strathnairn Hoodies appear to have become more frequent in the past few years. That's all for the good as far as I'm concerned, I like corvids, and another one is always welcome in my books.

Is this the time we have to bring up the separate species issue, again? Why do we seem to have do this conversation so often with birds, and not much else. Well birders just love a ‘new’ species. A few yrs back, these were a race, now they’re supposedly a separate species. Does evolution work this fast you may wonder. Keep wondering! ‘Ornithologists’ also love setting themselves up as an ‘authority’ and laying down the law. You would(n’t) be surprised how many ‘official’ groups, unions etc. there are worldwide. Now all I’m going to say is this, they interbreed and produce fertile offspring. That’s the scientific definition of a species right there. End of.

It is easy to put two and two together and work out that the ‘pie’ half of this birds name derives from piebald, ie black and white. But it’s the other way around, ‘piebald’ mostly likely arises from the magpie. This would make sense I suppose, how many other obvious black and white things were around to be seen by European country folk during the 15th to 17th centuries, or earlier? I mean they had no zebra crossings to refer to (or even, for that matter, zebras!).

‘Pie’ itself is conjectured to mean ‘pointed’, and can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European language. Naturally, Proto-Indo-European is usually abbreviated to, yes you worked it out, PIE. Now, I’m getting confused too, so let’s move on. The ‘Mag’ part is derived from the contraction ‘Margot’ (Marguerite) which was used as a generic name for a woman in general, much as John is often used for men. The next bit will get me in trouble I am sure, but in for a penny, in for a pound! It is suggested (not by me, no way, no sir) that the sounds made by a group of Magpies resembles the endless chattering of woman, hence we got Mag Pie. As I honestly never realised that ladies might be capable of nattering on endlessly at every opportunity, this whole notion came as something of a complete surprise to me. Let’s move on, keep moving I always say.

Aka: Pie, Piet (Westmoreland) and Pianate or Pyenate (West Riding). We also have Mag or Madge, Marget, Margaret, Miggy (North country) Nanpie (Craven) Ninut (Notts) Pye Mag (NW lancs: I suspect they’re just trying to be different), also Hagister (Kent). I feel the nicest name award ought to go to Norfolk for ‘Chatterpie’. They’ve captured the essence there without invoking the danger of suggesting that ladies like a good natter. Well done Norfolk.

It’s hardly seems worth mentioning the fact that Magpies, like so many birds, were claimed weather prognosticators. I can believe that, without the endless blathering on about weather on TV, radio and Interweb, folks of earlier times might have had to look out the window to see what the birds were up to. In the south of France, for example, it was believed that if Magpies were seen building their nest on the highest point of a tree, a calm season could be expected. Now that’s probably going to be as accurate as anything the tax-funded Met Office has ever produced. This gave rise to the proverb “Gran bèn te mancara pas, Se' l'agasso a nisat bas.” which, for non-Francophiles, google helpfully translates as: “ Great ass you won't miss it, If the agasso has nested low”. I prefer to believe that should read ‘great arse’, but that’s just me.

Magpie folklore is seemingly endless. Like it’s darker cousins it was considered a bird of ill-omen with associations to the Devil himself. In Germany, for example, and up into Scandinavia, it was believed witches could adopt their shape, or use them as a stead. Presumably when their broomsticks were in for a service. In Sweden it was said that when sorcerers went to Blakulla on Walpurgis Night they transformed into Magpies: Hence: “ De hava varet till Blakulla, och hjelpt hin onde föra in sitt hö, da fjædrarna af oket blivit nötte af deras halsar” *. This ‘explains’ the loss of the magpies neck feathers in Aug/Sept. Unfortunately, I am not certain if ‘Blakulla’ was a pub, or not, but I certainly like to think so. Similar menacing stories abound from across Europe, except in Norway, for some reason. I cannot close, although I wouldn’t mind doing to, without acknowledging the well-known rhyme.

    “One is sorrow, two is mirth ,       Three a wedding, four a birth,       Five heaven, six hell ,       Seven the deil's ain sell. ”

Now I bet that is different from the version you learned. All sayings, of course, were originally transmitted by word of mouth. And your mind wanders as you travel from village to village, or you fall in a dung-heap, maybe you’re attacked by squirrels, or something similar, and you forget the a line or so. Still just make up a new one as you wander along, they’ll never know. Also of course the above version is missing three numbers, was this a particularly bad journey? Anyway, we have, amongst others:

      “Three a berrin', four a wedding” (Northants)
      “ Five for rich, six for poor,
      “Seven for a witch, I can tell you no more! ” (Lancs. Obviously an honest traveller!)

     “Eight for heaven, nine for hell”
     “And ten for the devil's ain sel '."

This is all getting way too long, but before I stop I must add the following to avoid upsetting a good friend. You should always greet a single Magpie who crosses your path with a “Good morning Magpie, how is your wife”. This is probably to ward off the bad luck from seeing a single Magpie. Of course you could follow the Shropshire way, take off your hat, spit at the bird and say “Devil, Devil, I defy thee”.

There isn’t space here for all the folklore around Magpies and I’ve excluded so much great stuff. So here’s a link ⇢  “here” ⇠   if you want to delve deeper. n.b. connects to the external site: Internet Archive.

    * The magpies have gone to the Blakulla and have helped the devil to carry his hay, so their feathers have been rubbed off by the yoke.

Currently I can find not literature on either the vernacular names or mythology of Iberian birds so, regrettably, cannot regale (bore) you with interesting facts and bon mots on the Iberian magpie. If such things exist I have not found them. I still look, and if I find them you will be the first to know.

So without further ado, here's a picture!