238 BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



THE JACKDAW 



(Corvus monedula). 



Plate 74. 



Its smaller size is the chief point of difference between 

 the Jackdaw and our other typical Crows. In both sexes 

 the plumage is of the usual glossy black hue, except for 

 a grayish collar-like patch, which covers the back and 

 sides of the neck. The iris of the eye is conspicuously 

 white. Immature birds hardly show the gray patch and 

 are much less glossy, but they have the white iris. The 

 language of the Daw is apt to be abrupt ; ' kae ' and 

 * chock' are attempts to syllable typical notes. 



In its habits the Jackdaw is to some extent less 

 harmful than its allies, for it eats worms and insects and 

 their larvae for the greater part of the year. But, like 

 other Crows, it is ever on the lookout for stray morsels, 

 and in summer it becomes a sad robber of the eggs of 

 smaller birds. Its less overwhelming size gives to the 

 rio-htful owners a chance to defend their nests — a chance 

 which they do not have against the tyrannous Crow, black 

 or gray. But this advantage is generally nullified by the 

 fact that the Daw usually hunts in pairs, if not in larger 

 numbers, for at all seasons it is a markedly gregarious bird. 

 Over the greater part of the British Isles colonies of 

 Jackdaws are iiTegularly but abundantly distributed, the 

 strength of these varying greatly. In some districts it is 

 unaccountably local, and may be absent from considerable 

 stretches of country not apparently lacking in suitable 

 nesting-haunts. Towards the north-west of Scotland it 

 becomes scarce, but is still found as a breeding species as 

 far as some of the Inner Hebrides to the west and 



