Three for a girl...

Sorry, my supersition being as it is, I couldn't leave just one magpie on the page and anyway, I was curious to learn a little more about the rhyme.

If like me you grew up in the 1970's, you may well remember an ITV Chldrens magazine programme called Magpie, pitched as a cooler alternative to the BBC's Blue Peter. For me this is memorable for a few reasons:
~ Susan Stranks - famous for her seldom choosing to wear a bra
~ Jenny Hanley - just for being lovely
~ Christmas appeal - where they blatantly asked for money instead of stamps, spoons or milk bottle tops
~ the rocking theme tune by The Murgatroyd Band (actually The Spencer Davis Group, Murgatroyd being the somewhat overweight magpie in the show's logo)

The intro (a copy of which you can download here) was a vast array of psychadelic imagery and the lyrics to the accompanying theme tune went:

One for sorrow, two for joy
Three for a girl and four for a boy
Five for silver, six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told
Maaaaaaagpiiiiiiiiiie

I only discovered recently that this rhyme actually continues:

Eight for a wish, Nine for a kiss
Ten for a time of joyous bliss.

How sweet. However, The Dictionary of Superstitions (published by Oxford University Press) quotes a more sinister sounding variation:

One for sorrow, two for mirth
Three for a wedding, four for birth
Five for rich, six for poor
Seven for a witch
I can tell you no more

I think I prefer the more recent version somehow (if only because it reminds me of Jenny Hanley)

As for waving, saluting, greeting etc. I will simply direct you to The Lone Magpie Page which lists a whole multitude of examples of how ridicuoulsy we behave up and down the country when faced by one of these creatures.

The final word has to go to the USGS where I found a fascinating bit of trivia about the black-billed magpie pica hudsonia

"The black-billed magpie can be told from the very similar yellow-billed magpie by it's black bill"

No shit Sherlock...