60 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



fully grown and perfected. The depredation 

 continued year by year, and it became almost 

 impossible to prevent it. In the tower of Great 

 St. Mary's church, and in the steeples of other 

 churches, a large number of these labels, with 

 botanical inscriptions, were found. From the shaft 

 of one chimney near the garden no less than 

 eighteen dozen of these labels were taken out and 

 brought to the curator of the garden, who received 

 and counted them ! The manner in which the 

 jackdaws drew the labels out of the ground proved 

 the birds' ingenuity, for they would pull them first 

 to one side, then to another, until they were 

 loosened, when, balancing them in their beaks, 

 they would mount aloft with their prize. 



The rook furnishes us with another instance of 

 depredation of a kind resembling the first quoted. 

 The birds in early spring are busy in selecting 

 the situations, and in collecting the materials of 

 their nests. The young birds of the previous year 

 must now construct a home for themselves. This 

 they set about at first with all imaginable dili- 

 gence, and it seems as if the structure would very 

 quickly be completed : twigs, grass, and fibrous 

 roots are brought in abundance. " But," says 



