104 JACKDAW 



insuperable difficulty, quantities falling down outside, yet it 

 was marvellous to see the numbers which " by hook or by 

 crook " they got in. The spiral nature of the staircase 

 increased their difficulty, so much larger a quantity of 

 materials being required to make a foundation. 



One instance is related by Mr. Alexander Hepburn, in 

 the Zoologist, of the Jackdaw having built on the branches 

 of trees ; and Mr. G. B. Clarke, of Woburn, Bedfordshire, 

 tells me that "some of the Jackdaws in Woburn Park, 

 instead of building their nests as they had hitherto done 

 in the holes of trees, have taken to placing them (1850) in 

 some of the branches of the Scotch firs, the foundation 

 being composed of small twigs, and the remainder of coarse 

 grass or sedge, lined with fine dry grass." 



At the Botanic Gardens at Cambridge great inconveni- 

 ence was formerly caused by the appropriation of the labels by 

 the Jackdaws ; no less than eighteen dozen being discovered 

 in one chimney. 



The eggs, from four to six in number, are pale bluish 

 white, spotted with large marks of grey and brown. They 

 are never so beautifully marked as those of the allied 

 species, the Rook, Crow, or Raven. 



The eggs vary considerably, alike in size and shape. 



The young are hatched in the end of May. 



