CROWS 203 



peculiarity in the Rook's wing — not, I think, to be 

 noted in the same degree in any other bird — is that 

 in flight it appears to curve upwards towards the tip. 



Although 



"a great frequenter of the church, 

 Where, bishop-like, he finds a perch 

 And dormitory too," 



the Jackdaw is still a tree-haunting bird, and may 

 constantly be met with in the English woodlands. 

 In the ancient oaks and elms w-hich dot the park- 

 lands, he finds many rifts which serve him for a 

 nesting place, and throughout the long summer 

 day, he may be seen searching busily in the grass 

 below for materials or for food, soon rising again 

 to the upper branches, w^here his glossy black 

 plumage may be caught gleaming amidst the green 

 of the leaves. A bold predatory bird, his manners 

 display an amount of cool impudence which dis- 

 arms criticism, provided, indeed, that the critic be 

 not the victim of his nefarious ways. His fellow- 

 creatures, feathered and furred, are treated as 

 though they existed for his sole use and benefit. 

 When the Rooks have toilfuUy amassed a great 

 heap of sticks to form their dwelling at the summit 

 of the elm, the Jackdaw appears upon the scene. 

 He calmly sets to work to prepare himself a home 

 in the basement, as it were, carelessly tearing out 

 the materials midway in the structure, and rearing 

 his brood in his neighbour's tenement without the 

 slightest respect for the rights of property, the 

 owners, bewildered, perhaps, by his audacity, offer- 

 ing, so far as I have been able to see, no protest 



