472 THE JACKDAW. 



rested on the broken bridge. When sweeping one vent the 

 felted mass just turned and choked the other, and vice versa, 

 which caused the slapping. But in vents their nests are usually 

 of sticks, on which is laid straw, dry grass, hair, wool, feathers, 

 or any soft material handiest, often stealing silk handerchiefs, 

 collars, &c. Sometimes before a proper base is made an enormous 

 quantity of sticks is used, tumbling down the vent before a 

 foundation is got. As an illustration, at Eton, the sill of a small 

 opening in a high turret not being big enough to hold the nest, 

 what did they do ? Just what the crow in the fable did which 

 wanted a drink out of the deep pitcher and got it by putting 

 pebbles in till the water rose. So the daws began nine feet 

 down on the wheel stair to raise the nest on a level with the 

 sill. They raised their stick fabric perpendicularly up nine feet 

 and accomplished their object. Could reason have done more? 

 Mr Wolley, who saw this nest in the turret at Eton, says — " It 

 took its rise from two or three steps of the circular stair. It 

 was built up compactly, of neary uniform breadth, to a 

 lancet window, the bottom of which was not broad 

 enough to support a nest." This is a strong proof of 

 forethought — if not reason — in jackdaws raising a foundation 

 for their nest with sticks bit by bit perpendicularly up for nine 

 feet to the desired level. It was like building the trunk of 

 their own tree or their own chimney on which to build their 

 nest, but how different from creeping into a sandy hole in a 

 rabbit's burrow on a moor, which just shows there is no 

 particular place for birds to build. Jackdaws remain paired all 

 year. I have seen them billing on chimney tops in December. 

 To corroborate what I said of the kestrel and carrion crow 

 breeding on the same tree, a writer in 1894 says — " In Warwick- 

 shire last week I was shown what I think is remarkable. The 

 top of an elm tree had been broken off by the wind. In the 

 part where it was severed there was a kestrel's nest with five 

 eggs. On the north side was a jackdaw's nest with young ; and 

 in°a hole on the south side there was an owl's nest with one 

 young owl and four eggs — all three nests within four feet of 

 each other." Like the rest of the genera, the daw is easily 

 tamed, and makes an interesting though mischievous pet. A 

 butcher lad had one which accompanied him regularly to the 

 country when driving, flying overhead or alighting on his head 

 or cart, always returning home with him. A fisherman, Davie 

 Waters, had one for two years which went out regularly to sea 

 with him to fish, or haul his partan creels. It flew round about 



