JACKDAW. 101 
JACKDAW. 
CorRVUS MONEDULA, Linnzus. 
The Jackdaw is found throughout Cheshire, and is 
particularly numerous in many of the parks, where it 
nests in hollow trees and in the dense growth on the 
trunks of old limes. The bird holds its own in spite 
of persecution by gamekeepers, who shoot it whenever 
they get a chance, and also destroy large numbers of 
eggs and nestlings. In Dunham Park many pairs 
build in holes high up in the ancient beeches and oaks, 
and succeed in bringing off their young, for the nests 
are practically inaccessible and the old birds are far too 
wary to allow themselves to be shot. Among the hills 
in the east of the county, where there is a scarcity 
of old timber, the Jackdaw usually nests in chimneys, 
steeples, quarries, and rock-faces, situations little affected 
by it in the Plain. 
The Jackdaw is often sociable in the breeding season, 
many pairs breeding in close proximity; but its 
gregarious habits are most noticeable in autumn and 
winter, when large flocks—almost invariably associated 
with Rooks—may be seen feeding in the fields. 
Mr. C. E. Stott has described the actions of a Jackdaw 
which rose from the bank of the river Weaver with a 
full-grown water-vole in its claws, which it dropped from 
a height of about forty feet. This was repeated seven 
or eight times, until the animal’s life was extinct, when 
the bird carried it away to a neighbouring steeple. 
Mr. Stott infers that the Jackdaw dropped the vole 
deliberately again and again in order to kill it; but 
possibly it was dropped involuntarily as the bird was 
unable to carry so great a weight. 
1 Zoologist, ser. 111. vol. xiv. p. 437. 1890. 
