252 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



CASE 54. 

 THE JACKDAW AND STARLING. 



The Jackdaw, 

 Order, Passeres. Family, Corvidcs. 



This is a very familiar species to us all, being 

 indigenous to our islands, at the same time 

 augmented in the winter months by large flocks 

 which arrive from the Continent. 



It seems to be very generally distributed over 

 Great Britain, with perhaps the exception of the 

 Outer Hebrides ; also some parts of the Irish coast, 

 where its place amongst the cliffs is taken by the 

 Chough. In regard to nesting-habit, the Jackdaw 

 has a very varied selection of sites, those that I have 

 come across having been more or less in church 

 towers, chimneys of houses, ivy-grown cliffs ; but 

 in addition to these it makes use, I believe, of rabbit 

 burrows and holes in trees. Mr. W. H. Hudson 

 describes the nest as "a rude structure made with 

 sticks, dry grass, leaves, wool, and other materials 

 heaped together." The eggs — four to six in number 

 —are of a pale blue to greenish tint in ground- 

 colour, spotted and blotched with blackish-olive- 

 brown and grey. 



The Jackdaw's principal food probably would be 

 what it can pick up in the way of worms, slugs, 

 insects, and such like in pastures and cultivated 

 lands, but at the same time it is partial to eggs, and 

 will even eat carrion in the winter. 



