JACKDAWS. 



The habits of a Jackdaw are known to everybody ; wher- 

 ever found, he is the same active, bustling, cheerful, noisy 

 fellow. Whether in the depth of a shady wood, "remote 

 from cities and from towns," or whether established in the 

 nooks and niches of some Gothic cathedral-tower, in the very 

 midst of the world, it matters not to him. He seems to know 

 neither care nor sorrow ever satisfied always happy ! Who 

 ever saw or heard of a moping, melancholy Jackdaw ? 



The Jackdaw. 



We have in England another bird mucn resembling him in 

 manners and colour, though from certain distinguishing features, 

 such as a bent, orange-coloured beak and legs, &c., it has been 

 placed in another division of birds. It is the Eed-legged Crow 

 or Chough, never seen in most parts of our island, though in 

 its favourite haunts, in front of high precipices and steep 

 rocks by the sea, often very abundant. Like Jackdaws, the 

 Choughs are easily tamed, and are as entertaining, and at the 

 same time as troublesome when tamed On a lawn, where five 

 were kept, one particular part of it was found to turn brown, 

 and exhibit all the appearance of a field suffering under severe 

 drought, covered as it was with dead and withering tufts of 

 grass, of which it was soon ascertained the Choughs were in- 



