…father died, and I dreamed one huge magpie flew in at the door and perched on one of the knobs at the foot of my bed, exactly a week before the death of my eldest son.”I, too, have dreamed of magpies, and, as in the case I have just quoted, the dreams have always occurred shortly before a death. The night a very near relative of mine died, I dreamed a large number of magpies flew in at my window; and the day before a dog to which I was very much attached was run over and killed, I dreamed two magpies settled on my shoulder, and that I could not make them go. Also, when I was living in a big, rambling house in Cornwall, I dreamed a raven flew down the chimney and pecked me vigorously three times on the hand. Indeed, the pecks hurt me so much…