394 Habits of the Jackdaw, 



Art. III. A Notice of the Habits of the Jackdaw. 

 By Charles Waterton, Esq. 



Sir, 



This lively bird is the constant friend and companion of 

 the rook, in our part of Yorkshire, for nine months out of 

 twelve; and, I think, there is no doubt but that it would 

 remain with the rook for the other three if it only had that 

 particular kind of convenience for incubation which its nature, 

 for reasons totally unknown to us, seems to require. 



Though the jackdaw makes use of the same kind of 

 materials for building as those which are found in the nest 

 of the rook ; though it is, to all appearance, quite as hardy 

 a bird ; and though it passes the night, exposed to the chill- 

 ing cold and rains of winter, on the leafless branches of the 

 lofty elm ; still, when the period for incubation arrives, it bids 

 farewell to those exposed heights where the rook remains to 

 hatch its young, and betakes itself to the shelter which is 

 afforded in the holes of steeples, towers, ahil trees. Perhaps 

 there is no instance in the annals of ornithology which tells 

 of the jackdaw ever building its nest in the open air. Wish- 

 ing to try whether these two congeners could not be induced 

 to continue the year throughout in that bond of society 

 which, I had observed, was only broken during incubation, 

 I made a commodious cavity in an aged elm, just at the place 

 where it had lost a mighty limb, some forty years ago, in 

 a tremendous gale of wind which laid prostrate some of 

 the finest trees in this part of Yorkshire. At the approach 

 of breeding-time, a pair of jackdaws took possession of it, 

 and reared their young in shelter; while the rooks performed 

 a similar duty on the top of the same tree, exposed to all the 

 rigours of an English spring. This success induced me to 

 appropriate other conveniences for the incubation of the jack- 

 daw : and I have now the satisfaction to see an uninterrupted 

 fellowship exist, the year throughout, between the jackdaw 

 and the rook. 



Those who are of opinion that birds are gifted with a 

 certain portion of reasoning, superior to that which is usually 

 denominated instinct, will have cause for reflection, should 

 they ever examine the materials of a jackdaw's nest, or pay 

 any attention to the mode by which the bird tries to intro- 

 duce those materials into the hole. The jackdaw invariably 

 carries into it a certain quantity of sticks, fully as thick as 

 those which are made use of by the rook. Now, it always 

 occurs to us that the rook conveys sticks up to the branches 

 of a tree in order to make a kind of frame which may support 



