52 BIRDS IN LONDON 



CHAPTER IV 



THE LONDON DAW 



Rarity of the daw in London— Pigeons and daws compared — 

 ^Esthetic value of the daw as a cathedral bird — Kensington 

 Palace daws ; their disposition and habits — Friendship with 

 rooks —Wandering daws at Clissold Park — Solitary daws — 

 Mr. Mark Melford's birds — Rescue of a hundred daws — The 

 strange history of an egg-stealing daw — White daws — White 

 ravens — Willughby's speculations — A suggestion. 



It is somewhat curious to find that the jackdaw 

 is an extremely rare bird in London — that, in 

 fact, with the exception of a small colony at one 

 spot, he is almost non-existent. At Eichmond 

 Park, where pheasants (and the gamekeeper's 

 traditions) are preserved, he was sometimes shot 

 in the breeding season ; l)ut in the metropolis, 

 so far as I know, he has never been persecuted. 

 Yet there are few birds, certainly no member of 

 the crow family, seemingly so w^ell adapted to a 

 London life as lliis species. Throughout the 

 kinfrdom he is a tamihar town bird ; in one 

 English cathedral ovei- a hundred pairs have 



