i66 Thk Jackdaw 



snaps at lier tail again ; the mystification and rage of the cat are exceeding!}' 

 Indicrous, as also is the adroit way in which the Jackdaw invariably evades her. 



The keenness of vision of the Jackdaw is perhaps never so ninch appreciated 

 as when one experiments with a tame example. For man}' years ni}' old friend 

 Dr. lohn Grayling, of Sittingbourne, had a tame Jackdaw in his garden. Tliis 

 bird was particularly fond of hazel-nuts, and would catch every one that was 

 thrown at him ; but if you took two or three nuts with about the same number 

 of pebbles in your hand, and flung them at the bird, one after the other as rapidly 

 as possible, he caught every nut, and evaded every stone, without fail : his 

 manner of avoiding a missile made you look small, for he never moved farther 

 than was neccssarj-, sometimes merely lowering his head, or taking a step to right 

 or left.* When one considers how marvellously powerful a bird's vision must be 

 to enable it, in a second, to distinguish between a nut and a similarly-coloured 

 pebble, leading it instantaneously to decide whether to catch or avoid it ; it seems 

 preposterous to imagine that it can ever hesitate as to the nature of a leaf-like 

 insect, however well it may seem to be disguised to our less discriminating sight: 

 indeed I am fully convinced that if a dozen leaf-like insects (recently killed to 

 prevent their showing movement) and an eqiial number of similar crumpled leaves 

 were flung on the floor of an aviary containing insectivorous birds of any kind, 

 it would not be long before all the insects had been selected and devoured. 



As the Jackdaw is almost omnivorous, there is never any difficult}^ in feeding 

 it in captivity : but the bird is less entertaining in a flight-cage than when (with 

 one wing clipped) it is allowed the run of the place. 



* In a review of " linlish Kinls witli llieir .Vests and Iviij^s," Uiis slatenieiU of mine was reganled as a 

 romance, but it is literally true in every particular. — A.G.B. 



