202 BRITISH BIRDS. 



do not mind, as they have been known to attempt 

 building in the chimney of a room where a fire was 

 commonly kept. 



The various churches and college buildings of Cam- 

 bridge supply abundant reception also for their nests ; 

 and here they are very numerous. The botanic garden 

 there has three of its four sides enclosed by thickly- 

 built parts of the town, and has five churches and five 

 colleges within a short flight of it ; and the jackdaws 

 inhabiting these and similar buildings found that the 

 wooden labels placed near the plants would serve for 

 their nests, instead of twigs from trees ; that they were 

 ready for use, and were also very near home. The 

 consequence was, that they helped themselves freely to 

 these labels : it is said, that from the shaft of one chim- 

 ney, in Free-school lane, which was close by the garden, 

 no less than eighteen dozen were taken out, and brought 

 to the curator, and the loss annually cannot be told. 

 The inconvenience that arose will appear, when the ne- 

 cessity of such labels is considered to mark and point 

 out the names of the various plants. 



Sonnini thinks, that jackdaws prefer churches to all 

 other places. Thus the fine church of St. Nicholas, in 

 Louraine, is at all times covered with these birds ; and 



