The Swedes, however, regard it as sacred, and no one offers
to molest it. In the north of England, one _Magpie_ flying alone, is
deemed an ill omen; two together, a fortunate one; three forebode a
funeral, and four a wedding; or, when on a journey, to meet two magpies
portends a wedding; three, a successful journey; four, unexpected good
news; and five, that the person will soon be in company with the great. To
kill a magpie, indicates or brings down some terrible misfortune. The
_Sparrow Hawk_ was sacred with the Egyptians, and the symbol of Osiris.
The _Yellow Hammer_ is superstitiously considered an agent _diablerie_.
The _Wheat-Ear_ is, in the Highlands, a detested bird, and fancied one of
evil omen, on account of its frequenting old churchyards, where it nestles
amongst the stones, and finds plenty of insects for food. The _Woodcock_
is, we believe, the bird imagined to drop, in its proper season, from the
moon. It is a vulgar error, that the song of the _Nightingale_ is
melancholy, and that it only sings by night; but to hear the Cuckoo before
the Nightingale has been long deemed an unsuccessful omen in love: the
saliva of the cuckoo has been thought to preserve all it falls upon.
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