98 JACKDAW. 



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/ 



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

 with grey and brown. 



James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, has one of a pure 

 white; all the others in the nest having been of the usual colour. 



Another variety is pale greenish blue, mottled all over with a few 

 large and many smaller spots and marks of dark brown or black, 

 light yellowish brown, and other colours of different intermediate shades 

 between these two. 



A third is marked much in the same way, but without the largest 

 of the markings. 



A fourth is marked similarly, with only the smallest of the spots 

 and marks, and the ground colour is much lighter. 



A fifth is nearly white, elegantly marked with a very few brownish 

 and blackish rather large irregular- shaped dots. 



These eggs vary also in size and shape. 



The young are hatched in the end of May. 



