72 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



downs. In a very few days the bird recovered from 

 his weakness and was perfectly well and able to fly 

 again, but he did not go away; and the reason of his 

 remaining appeared to be not that he had been well 

 treated, but because he had formed an extraordinary 

 attachment, not, as one would naturally suppose, to 

 the boy who had rescued and fed him but to another, 

 smaller boy, who lived in the next cottage! It was 

 quite unmistakable; the bird, free to go away if 

 he liked, began to spend his time hanging about the 

 cottage of his chosen little friend. He wanted to be 

 always with him, and when the children went to 

 school in the morning the daw would accompany 

 them, and flying into the schoolroom after them settle 

 himself on a perch where he would sit until the release 

 came. But the proceedings were always too long for 

 his patience, and from time to time he would emit 

 a loud caw of remonstrance, which would set the 

 children tittering, and eventually he was turned out 

 and the door shut against him. He then took to 

 sitting on the roof until school was over, whereupon 

 he would fly down to the shoulder of his little friend 

 and go home with him. In the same way he would 

 follow his friend to church on Sunday morning, but 

 even there he could not repress his loud startling 

 caw, which made the congregation smile and cast 

 up its eyes at the roof. My friend the vicar, who by- 

 the-by is a lover of birds, could not tolerate this, and 

 the result was that the daw had to be caught and 

 confined every day during school and church hours. 

 There are three or four more jackdaw anecdotes 



