CORVUS MONEDULA. 499 



CORVUS MONEDULA, Linnaeus. 

 DAW. 



§ 2684. Four. — Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, not later 

 than 1843. 



These [and others, apparently] were taken by my brother George — 

 some opposite Willersley and one or two in Black Rock near Crom- 

 ford. The Jackdaws are troublesome at Rock House, building in 

 the chimneys. I have seen a very extraordinary nest at Eton, in one 

 of the bell-towers, built up to the height of six or eight feet from a 

 step up two or three other steep steps, and then running by a wall to 

 a window, on the ledge of which the main part of the nest was placed. 

 It was generally thought to have been built by the clerk, but this 

 was clearly impossible. It was not the accumulation of years, but 

 was evidently raised up merely to give a broader stand for the nest 

 in the window. It was not a huge heap, but had the appearance that 

 ten or twelve Jackdaws^ nests carefully placed one upon another 

 would have. It is described and figured by Mr. Jesse [' Scenes and 

 Tales of a Country Life,'' pp. 57-59, and frontispiece (London : 

 1844)]. 



[The celebrated nest at Eton is said by Mr. Jesse {loc. cit.) to have been 

 built in seventeen days, in May, 1842. The nest of a Gos-Hawk already 

 described (§ 117) subsequently reminded Mr. Wolley of it. For other instances 

 of similar structures, as well as an attempted explanation of what Mr. Jesse 

 considered to be a wonderful proof of the birds' reasoning-powers, see Yarrell's 

 'British Birds' (ed. 4, ii. page 30S).] 



\ 2685. Twenty.— Be2iVv^^ooA, Berkshire, April, 1847. "J. W." 



These formed part of the eggs taken by Mr. Henry Walter and 

 myself at Bearwood this spring. 



[Concerning these eggs Mr. Wolley, on the 3rd May, 1847, wrote as follows 

 in ' The Zoologist ' for that year, pp. 1774, 1775 :— J 



" On Jackdaws' Nests. Do Birds of the Crow tribe cover their Eggs ? 

 " I have a fact to offer on this disputed point. About ten days 

 ago Henry Walter and myself amused ourselves by climbing up to 

 jackdaws' nests, placed in holes in the trees, about Bearwood, which 

 is on the borders of Windsor Forest. In the course of three davs 



