500 CORVUS MONEDULA. 



we must have examined several score of nests. On the first day none 

 of the eggs were covered, but on the second and third days we found 

 that several of the nests that had been visited before now had their 

 eggs either partially covered by loose pieces of wool, or the eggs, in 

 some cases, were nearly buried in the woolly lining of the nest; and 

 this, whether the bird had just flown from the nest or not. So 

 far on this much-quarrelled subject ■^. With respect to the make of 

 the nests, it is curious how they were adapted to circumstances; in 

 some cases only a little wool and such like soft material, in others a 

 monstrous pile of sticks to stop some inconvenient cavity of the tree. 

 Mr. Jesse tells the story of the extraordinary nest in the bell-turret 

 at Eton [vide supra] ; I saw it myself, and it really was almost 

 beyond belief: many people thought Gray, the sly old clerk, had built 

 it ; but there is no doubt it was entirely the work of the birds. It was 

 remarkable in not being of a pyramid shape, but taking its rise from 

 two or three steps of the circular stairs it was built up compactly, and 

 of a nearly uniform breadth, to a lancet-window in the perpendicular 

 wall, the bottom of which window was not otherwise sufficiently wide 

 to support a nest. I forget the whole height of the nest, but I should 

 guess not less than nine feet. It was unfortunately removed not 

 long after it was built, though in the meantime it was a matter of 

 great profit to old Gray. Somewhat similar instances of vast piles 

 of sticks collected by jackdaws are not uncommon ; they will some- 

 times fill almost a whole chimney with sticks. At the foot of some 

 of the trees at Bearwood I saw heaps of sticks, to the extent of several 

 barrow-loads, recently dropped by the jackdaws. The keeper assured 

 us several birds will lay in one nest, and we frequently saw three 

 birds fly out of the same hole, and in one case found two eggs in a 

 nest we had robbed the day before. Six was the greatest number of 

 eggs we found in any nest, but very few had this number, or indeed 

 more than one or two eggs, as it was early in the year. The jack- 

 daws generally flew out long before we got near the trees ; but in one 

 case, by creeping up stealthily, I looked into a hole where a jackdaw 

 was sitting : she did not lose her presence of mind, but remained 

 perfectly quiet : I repeated the experiment several times with the 

 same result : it was in a hole within a yard of the ground. Their 

 eggs vary from one another very much less than those of most others 

 of the tribe do. Hooks [^] vary exceedingly.^' 



" * By Mr. Waterton and others. Vide ' Magazine of Natural History ' [v. 

 pp. 143, 393, 487, ?90, and 676 ; vi. p. 209]. 



