CHAPTER XVII 



WOODLAND THIEVES AND LOAFERS 



(The Jackdaw, the Jay, the Magpie) 



IT would be hard to say which is the most intelHgent 

 of our indigenous corvine species. If the power of 

 holding out against persecution has anything to do 

 with it, the jackdaw comes foremost as far and away the 

 most plentiful, for in all parts of the country keepers 

 never miss an opportunity of destroying these birds on 

 account of their sly habits. The jackdaw ever prefers 

 a stolen meal to an honest one, and if, by dint of sneaking 

 in by back-door methods, he can lift a pheasant chick, 

 or plunder a clutch of eggs, he prefers to do so than to 

 hunt in the ordinary way for his living. 



In some localities where jackdaws are most plentiful, 

 they are trapped wholesale. The orthodox jackdaw trap 

 consists of a wire cage, six feet or so in height, four or 

 five feet wide, and ten feet or so in length. The cage 

 is provided with two funnel-shaped entrances, pointing 

 inwards and narrowing off till just large enough to admit 

 the entrance of the bird. The trap is on the same Hues 

 as the bait traps used by anglers, and generally the carcass 

 of a sheep is placed inside it. Sometimes as many as 

 forty or fifty birds are taken in a single haul, whereupon 

 they are sold for pigeon shooting matches or possibly for 

 pigeon pies ! 



Numbers of daws are shot during the nesting season, 

 as they then lose much of their distrust of man, and can 

 very easily be killed as they swoop from their nests or 



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