CORVID^. 41 



building accommodation. They generally select 

 chimneys, or holes in trees, for a site ; and in some 

 parts of Scotland a popular superstition exists, that if 

 a pair of these birds build their nest in a chimney of 

 the house belonging to an heir, the same spring that 

 the latter comes into possession of that house and his 

 property, no ill-luck can ever befall him. 



In the month of May 1842, a Jackdaw built a nest 

 in the south-east turret of the Eton College bell- 

 tower : this nest took seventeen days to construct, 

 and was between nine and ten feet in height, being 

 composed of an immense accumulation of twigs and 

 sticks which the industrious birds had collected. The 

 base was firmly supported on one of the stone steps, 

 and curved up the spiral stairs to the height of nearly 

 ten feet, until an exit was obtained by means of a 

 window, and here it was that the top of the structure 

 rested. Unfortunately, no eggs were ever laid in 

 this curious nest, and it was deserted, which was pro- 

 bably owing to the continuous visits of too many 

 eager strangers. 



The Rev. C. WoUey told me that a pair of Missel 

 Thrushes, which nested in his garden at Eton one 

 spring, used to attack and drive away some over- 

 curious Jackdaws, who doubtless had an eye to the 

 contents of the former's nest. A tame Jackdaw, be- 

 longing to Mr. Ernest Griffin, of the Eagle Tavern, 

 Slough, built a large nest between two beer-barrels, 

 which were placed on a shelf over the bar of the 



