JACKDAW 217 



possess the necessary positions for its bulky nest, and 

 when once it takes a fancy to a chimney, it will carry a 

 barrow full of material to stop it up. The Jackdaws 

 associate in large numbers in all the chalk-pits and 

 chalk-cliffs in Kent, and it was from the Dover Cliffs 

 that Shakespeare observed this bird, and wrote the 

 following lines : — 



" The Crows and Choughs that wing the midway air 

 Sliow scarce so gross as beetles." 



— King Lear, Act iv., Sc. 6. 



Writing on the audacity of Jackdav/s, Mr. W. Oxenden 

 Hammond says: " They abound here (Wingham) in the 

 old trees, and have become so mischievous, destroying 

 all the Blackbirds', Thrushes' and other eggs (to say 

 nothing of game), that, rather reluctantly, I ordered their 

 number to be reduced. The next day, or nearly so, my 

 shepherd saw a Jackdaw plunder a Kestrel's nest near 

 the house, that I have each year tried to protect, and 

 take the eggs. The bird dropped one, and in order to 

 identify it, I directed the man to bring me the broken 

 egg-shell, which he did, and I found it to be a Kestrel's. 

 This attack on a hawk's nest, although the Kestrel is 

 not a bold bird, still shows a Jackdaw's audacity to be 

 considerable." 



These birds build in the large chalk-pits on Boxley 

 Hill, and they became very troublesome in the egg- 

 stealing line. They used to steal the wild-fowls'^ 

 eggs from the pond at Boxley Abbey. They breed in 

 all the old churches in and about Maidstone, and they 

 have not overlooked Canterbury Cathedral. According 

 to Mr. T. Hepburn, there is a "thriving colony in the 

 ruins of Camber Castle." 



