560 BRITISH BIRDS. 
size, shape, and markings. Some specimens are bluish green in ground- 
colour, richly and boldly spotted and blotched with dark greenish brown, 
chiefly at the large end of the egg, and with a few violet-grey underlying 
spots; others are much paler in ground-colour, and have the markings 
smaller, deeper in colour, and more evenly distributed over the entire 
_ snrface, deep greenish brown, olive-brown, and pale grey; whilst others are 
the palest of blue, almost white, and quite free from markings. Jackdaw’s 
eges are never so thickly and beautifully marked as Crow’s or Raven’s. 
They measure from 1°6 to 1:3 inch in length, and from 11 to ‘95 inch in 
breadth. After leaving the nest the young birds are taken by their 
parents to the pastures, and keep company with them for some time, like 
Rooks. 
The Jackdaw does not win much favour, and its reputed ill-deeds, on a 
much smaller scale of course than its larger congeners, are considered 
a sufficient excuse by the ignorant gamekeeper and farmer for taking 
its life. It is quite as harmless a bird as the Rook, and at certain 
seasons of the year is very useful. You have but to watch its actions 
in the fields to be convinced of this. 
Like the Rook, the Jackdaw obtains by far the greatest portion of its 
food on the fields and pastures, and accompanies its congeners to these 
situations with precisely the same object in view. Its food consists 
largely of insects, worms, grubs, and even the parasites on cattle. It is 
to be seen on the turnip- and potatoe-fields, where the wire-worms are 
the object of its quest; whilst in sowing-time it goes with the Rooks to 
the newly sown land, and picks up the scattered grain that has escaped 
being covered by the harrow. In autumn the Jackdaw will eat 
fruit and also acorns and beech-mast; and in winter, when food is often 
hard to get, carrion or the refuse of slaughterhouses is eaten. On the 
coast the Jackdaw may often be seen, side by side with the Hooded Crow 
and the Rook, searching for shell-fish and other marine substances. 
The Jackdaw has the crown of the head rich black, glossed with 
purple; the ear-coverts, nape, and sides of the neck are grey; the rest 
of the upper parts are black, with violet and green reflections, especially 
on the wings and tail; the underparts are dull black. Legs, claws, and 
bill black ; irides greyish white. The female resembles the male in colour ; 
but the grey nape-patch is not so large and pure in colour. Young 
birds are dull black, and the grey collar is almost absent. 
