150 THE CHRONICLES OF A GARDEN. 



mucli more personal attachment tlian the magpie, and are 

 much less tricky and mischievous out-of-doors ; but they 

 have a great desire to belong to the family-circle, and it 

 is scarcely possible to keep them out, when they are de- 

 termined to be in, and once admitted, their meddlesome 

 curiosity, though amusing, is apt to become troublesome. 

 These birds have a good deal of character, which is always 

 interesting ; they will walk about and amuse themselves 

 among the shrubs for hours at a time, when one wing is 

 cut, but always seem, even then, on the watch for a human 

 companion : for they certainly have a dog-like tendency to 

 associate with any one they are attached to, recognising 

 the individual they prefer, and allowing themselves to be 

 handled and even stroked by that one, while they will 

 snap at any other hand held out. More than once we have 

 had jackdaws so resolutely bent on being house-pets that 

 keeping the lower windows closed was of little avail ; they 

 would get in at any open window, and then make their 

 way upstairs or downstairs, as the case might be, to the 

 sitting-room, where they would announce their arrival by 

 cawing till the door was opened and they were admitted 

 to the room. Their thievish propensities are wtII known ; 

 and one great attraction of the sitting-rooms is no doubt 

 the variety of small articles lying about, with which they 

 will (if permitted) fly out of the window. I remember 

 once, when absent from home, residing in lodgings in a 

 country town, being puzzled by the disappearance of a 

 comb from the dressing-table, which stood in the window ; 

 the comb was found on the pavement below the window. 



