88 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



is a music that has echoed from the hills hundreds 

 and hundreds of years. Rude men as they are, these 

 bellringers gratefully respond to the least appreciation 

 of their art. 



A few more turns about the spiral staircase, and then 

 step out on the roof. The footstep is deadened by the 

 dull-coloured lead, oxidized from exposure. The tar- 

 nished weathercock above revolves so stiffly as to be 

 heedless of the light air only facing a strong breeze. 

 The irreverent jackdaws, now wheeling round at a safe 

 distance, build in every coign of vantage, no matter 

 how incongruous their intrusion may be on the wings 

 of an angel, behind the flowing robe of St. Peter, or 

 yonder in the niche, gray and lichen-grown, where 

 stood the Virgin Mary before iconoclastic hands 

 dashed her image to the ground. If a gargoyle be 

 broken or choked so that no water comes through it, 

 they will use it, but not otherwise. And they have 

 nests, too, just on the ledge in the thickness of the 

 wall, outside those belfry windows which are partially 

 boarded up. Anywhere, in short, high up and weH 

 sheltered, suits the jackdaw. 



When nesting time is over, jackdaws seem to leave 

 the church and roost with the rooks ; they use the 

 tower much as the rooks do their hereditary group of 

 trees at a distance from the wood they sleep in at 

 other seasons. How came the jackdaw to make its 

 nest on church towers in the first place ? The bird 

 has become so associated with churches that it is 

 difficult to separate the two ; yet it is certain that 



