20 APPHN DES. NOS xeviiii: 
none of the eggs were covered; but on the second and third days, 
we found that several of the nests that had been visited before, now 
had their eggs either partially covered by loose pieces of wool, or the 
eggs, In some cases, were nearly buried in the woolly lining of the 
nest; and this, whether the bird had just flown from the nest 
er not. So far on this much quarrelled subject *. With respect 
to the make of the nests, it is curious how they were adapted to 
circumstances ; in some cases, only a little wool and such Jike soft 
materials ; in others, a monstrous pile of sticks to stop some in- 
convenient cavity of the tree. Mr. Jesse tells the story of the extra- 
ordinary nest in the bell turret at Eton [ § 2684]; I saw it myself, 
and it really was almost beyond belief: many people thought Gray, 
the sly old clerk, had built it; but there is no doubt it was entirely 
the work of the birds. It was remarkable in not being of a pyramid 
shape, but taking its rise from two or three sleps of the circular 
stairs it was built up compactly, and of a nearly uniform breadth, to 
a lancet window in the perpendicular wall, the bottom of which 
window was not otherwise sufficiently wide to support a nest. I 
forget the whole height of the nest, but I should guess not less than 
nine feet. It was unfortunately removed not long after it was built, 
though in the mean time it was a matter of great profit to old Gray. 
Somewhat similar instances of vast piles of sticks collected by 
Jackdaws are not uncommon: they will sometimes fill almost a 
whole chimney with sticks. At the foot of some of the trees at 
Bearwood I saw heaps of sticks, to the extent of several barrow- 
loads, recently dropped by the Jackdaws. The keeper assured us 
[that] several birds will lay in one nest, and we frequently saw 
three birds fly out of the same hole, and in one case found two eggs 
in a nest we had robbed the day before. Six was the greatest 
number of eggs we found in any nest, but very few had this number, 
or indeed more than one or two eggs, as it was early in the year. 
The Jackdaws generally flew out long before we got near the trees, 
but in one case, by creeping up stealthily, I looked into a hole where 
a Jackdaw was sitting: she did nut lose her presence of mind, but 
remained perfectly quiet: I repeated the experiment several times 
with the same result . it was in a hole within a yard of the ground. 
Their eggs vary from one another very much less than those of most 
others of the tribe do. Rooks’ vary exceedingly. 
Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, 
May 3rd, 1847. 
* By Mr. Waterton and others. Vede ‘Magazine of Natural History’ [iy. 
p. 517; v. pp. 101, 142, 393, 487, 590, 676), i 
