AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 229 



elation of the character of the Jackdaw we cannot 

 do better than refer our readers to the ' Ingoldsby 

 Legends,' where, in the description of the atrocities 

 committed by the " Jackdaw of Rheims," they will 

 gather that that incomparable rhymer, the author, had 

 (probably from his long residence in cathedral pre- 

 cincts) become most thoroughly acquainted with the 

 peculiarities of this species. The Jackdaw is a very 

 strong and active flyer, and we have seen some of the 

 best of our trained Falcons entirely beaten by these 

 birds in a fair flight on Salisbury Downs and the 

 heaths and unfenced fields of West Norfolk. We 

 have noticed this species in the summer months in 

 Northern France, Switzerland, Piedmont, Epirus, 

 Andalucia, and Cyprus, as above mentioned. In 

 some parts of European Turkey a race of Jackdaw 

 occurs with a very much lighter-coloured nape than 

 our bird, and has been described as a separate species 

 under the name of Corvus collaris (D. Hay). 



99. MAGPIE. 



Pica caudata. 



This bird still abounds in our county in spite of 

 the constant warfare waged against it by gamekeepers. 

 There are few of our British birds about which so 

 much has been written, or which has been so amply 

 treated of in fact, fancy, and fiction. As the editor 

 of the fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds ' 

 remarks, there is no doubt that in former days in Eng- 

 land the Magpie was a very familiar species, haunting 

 the neighbourhood of houses, as it still does in many 

 parts of Europe ; but since game-preserving and 



