230 JACKDAW. 



the south of France. Spain. Italy, Greece, and some other portions 

 of the jNIediterranean basin, including Morocco and Algeria, it is 

 extremel_v local. After heav\- gales from the south-east it has been 

 found in the Canaries. Between Eastern Europe and Turkestan, 

 Cashmere, and the valley of the Yenesei in Siberia, the examples 

 obtained have remarkably white and well-defined collars ; but from 

 the Altai Mountains to Eastern Siberia and China, the representative 

 species is C. diiih-icits, which has the nape, sides of the neck, lower 

 breast and belly ashy-white. 



For its breeding-place the Jackdaw chooses holes and cavities in 

 rocks, churches and castles— rumed or not, the chimneys of in- 

 habited houses, rabbit-burrorts and hollow trees ; while sometimes 

 the nest is among stalks of coarse ivy on cliffs, open to the sky. It 

 is usually a substantial, and sometimes a monstrous, pile of sticks, 

 warmly lined with wool, rabbit"s-fur and other soft materials. The 

 eggs, 4-6 in number, laid towards the end of April, are of a pale 

 bluish-green, boldly spotted and blotched with black, olive-brown 

 and violet-grey ; sometimes the ground-colour is greyish-white and 

 the markings are very scanty: average measurements i"4 by i in. 

 The warm lining is often pulled over the eggs, so as to conceal 

 them : and Mr. C. B. Wharton found a clutch smeared and 

 apparently disguised with a coating of cla}-, taken from a lump which 

 was in the nest. At Cambridge great inconvenience was formerly 

 caused by the appropriation of the labels from the old Botanic 

 Garden by the Jackdaws ; no less than eighteen dozen being dis- 

 covered in one chimney. The food consists chiefly of insects and 

 their larva;, worms, and the parasites found on sheep, upon the backs 

 of which the bird may often be seen perched. The flight is rapid 

 but wavering, numerous evolutions being pertbrmed in the air to the 

 accompaniment of a short clear note, sounding like cae. Although 

 it generally flies in pairs the Jackdaw is at all times more or less 

 gregarious, but especially so in winter. 



The adult male has the lores and crown of the head glossy 

 purplish-black ; ear-coverts, nape and sides of the neck grey, in- 

 clining to white, and producing the effect of a collar ; rest of the 

 upper parts glossy black ; under parts dusky-black ; bill, legs and feet 

 black. Length about i3in. ; wing 9*25 in. The female is some- 

 what smaller and the grey collar is less defined. The young are 

 dull black, with very little grey on the head and nape. The iris is 

 white at all as;es. 



