92 BIRDS AND MAN 



misty mid-region of Weir, or on the slopes of Mount 

 Yanik, for all the chance we have of witnessing them. 

 An experience I had one day when I was new 

 to the forest and used occasionally to lose myself, 

 gave me some idea of the numbers of jackdaws 

 breeding in Savernake. During my walk I came 

 to a spot where all round me and as far as could 

 be seen the trees were in an advanced state of 

 decay : not only were they hollow and rotten 

 within, but the immense horizontal branches and 

 portions of the trunks were covered with a thick 

 crop of fern, which, mixed with dead grass and 

 moss, gave the dying giants of the forest a strange, 

 ragged and desolate appearance. Many a time look- 

 ing at one of these trees I have been reminded 

 of Holman Hunt's forlorn Scapegoat. Here the 

 daws had their most populous settlement. As I 

 advanced, the dead twigs and leaves crackling 

 beneath my feet, they rose up everywhere, singly 

 and in twos and threes and half-dozens, darting 

 hurriedly away and disappearing among the trees 

 before me. The alarm-note they emit at such 

 times is like their usual yelping call subdued to a 

 short, querulous chirp ; and this note now sounded 

 before me and on either hand, at a distance of about 

 one hundred yards, uttered continually by so many 



