JACKDAW — MAGPIE. 107 



and the towers and steeples of many a village, to^oi, and city 

 chureli ; in this parish for instance, where the Daws may often 

 be seen circling" round the spire quite up to the summit, nearly 

 two hundred feet high, where they look no bigger than Star- 

 lings. In Oxford it is a well-known resident. 



Jackdaws and Barn Owls sometimes quarrel for the posses- 

 sion of a convenient hollow tree; at Bloxham Grove one of 

 the latter birds was (whether intentionally or not it is difficult 

 to say) built into a large hollow in an old elm in front of the 

 house. The presence of the Daws in that particular tree being 

 undesirable, a man was sent up to remove the mass of sticks 

 deposited in the hole, at the bottom of which he found a Barn 

 Owl in a very weak state, and only just able to fly away. I 

 once saw a Jackdaw's nest built under the eaves of a wheat 

 rick, in a hole apparently excavated by the birds, a most 

 unusual situation. In winter Jackdaws are seen in little 

 flocks accompanying the Rooks to their feeding-grounds. 



THE MAGPIE. ^U 



Pica rustica. 

 The Magpie is a resident, and probably in few parts of 

 England is it so abundant as in the north of the county in 

 this neighbourhood. When the leaves are off the trees in 

 winter, the large domed nest of the Magpie is a common and 

 conspicuous object, both in tall trees, and in the thorn bushes 

 and big hedgerows. At that season Magpies are more or less 

 gregarious, and always so at roosting-time. It is no uncom- 

 mon sight to see as many as a dozen birds together even in the 

 daytime ; I once indeed counted twenty-six as they flew one 

 after another out of a row of trees on the 24th December, 

 1 881, and Mr. C. M. Prior saw thirty-four in a stubble field 

 in November, 1875 {Zoologist, ss. p. 4879). The abundance of 

 the Magpie in this district is owing to the fact that strict 

 game preserving is almost unknown, and many a Partridge^s 

 nest is harried by these worst of egg-stealers. The Magpie is 



