Bird Life in a Suburban Parish 123 



nesting, know perfectly well wluit tlie Jackdaws are after, 

 and if they see one qiiarterino- a field containing their nests 

 they will dri\'e it off. AVater-hens also will niolj any 

 prowling Jackdaw, and attempt to drive it away from the 

 neighbourhood of their nest. Last year every I/ark's nest 

 known on one farm was destroyed by Hooks, Crows, and 

 Jackdaws. 



Jackdaws are generally strictly ecclesiastical birds ; but 

 Enfield has some dissenters, for the Jackdaws here have 

 made a gallant attempt to fill up the spire of the 

 AVesleyan cluipel by dropping sticks through the round 

 holes near the top. AA^hen I saw the accumulation, there 

 must have been a couple of cartloads, for the base of the 

 spire, ten feet each way, was filled up to the height of 

 l)etween four and five feet. I belie\'e it had been cleared 

 out once before. There were no eggs, only a few dead 

 Sparrows. I suppose, by the time they have filled up 

 the interior level with the holes, they will think about 

 laying. 



The Carrion-crow is another marauding species, and one 

 Avhich is decidedly on tlie increase round London, where 

 game-preserving is not very strictly carried out. I have 

 to-day (March 12th, 1000) been up to a typical nest in a 

 big hedgerow oak, which is to all appearance ready for eggs. 

 (Two eggs were eventually found in tliis nest, and at that 

 time there were two Crows' nests in the same tree, belong- 

 ing to two pairs of birds which I have seen in the tree 

 at the same time — a most unusual event.) 



